


Khrista Chronicles: Second Mobius

by CrossingTheFourthWall



Series: Khrista Chronicles [2]
Category: Sonic the Hedgehog - All Media Types
Genre: Any other characters besides ones listed above are alternate versions of Sonic and co, Except for Cyrus and Charon/Finitivus, Gen, a character gets robotosized, but they are from the previous story so they don't count, crossover with my other series at the end, man some of this stuff I've written needs to be redone, maybe when I have more time and fewer stories to write
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-17
Updated: 2017-07-17
Packaged: 2018-12-03 11:20:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 33,649
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11531151
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CrossingTheFourthWall/pseuds/CrossingTheFourthWall
Summary: After the fiasco last summer involving Cyrus and one of Khrista's neighbors, she gets called away again to investigate another world -- this time, one based on the realm of Sonic the Hedgehog. But with its differences and the enemy she is facing up against, will she be able to find a way to help and face off against an old enemy at the same time?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This story, not gonna lie, was very difficult for me to write. Not only because I was taking Sonic the Hedgehog characters and throwing them way out into left field, but also because...well, I didn't have much inspiration for it, I guess. I will definitely have to go back and rewrite this at some point, but I've gotta get other stories out of my head, first. So...I guess I'll have to just deal with this awkwardly put-together story until then.

A girl wearing a sky blue T-shirt and blue jeans with dark brown hair and ocean blue eyes let out a whoop as she flew around the countryside at high speed. Summer was in her sights, and the teen was more than happy to get out of school and spend time with her Pokemon with no one was breathing down her neck and asking unneeded questions.

Ever since Khrista and the others had gotten back from the Pokemon World, they had been considered famous by kids and adults alike. Many people had already tried to gain access to their Pokemon through her PokeDex, but they learned rather quickly that the only Pokemon she could bring over were hers. At school, she had been considered popular only because she could throw fireballs whenever the sidewalks needed to be shoveled and ice needed to be melted off the road.

Of course, there were the occasional request that she bring one of her Pokemon and have a quick sparring match with them, just to show a little of what she could do in that other world. Mostly, she would spar with a Pokemon about her size -- Gawain the Gallade or Genevieve the Gardevoir, usually. However, if someone had a specific request to see a Pokemon, Khrista might let them come out and converse with them, the teen oftentimes acting as a translator. Recently, a friend had wanted to meet her Swampert, who she had named Swamp. Khrista had allowed the two to meet, then allowed the friend to be Swamp's temporary Trainer in a spar, to give them a feel for what a Pokemon Battle might be like.

Khrista took in a breath of crisp, morning air as she circled the woods that were near her neighborhood. Thanks to her time in the Pokemon World, the teen had obtained abilities that most humans -- in fact, all humans -- didn't normally have.

About a year or so ago, Khrista and a selection of other kids from her area of the world were taken by a certain Galactic cretin (also known as Cyrus) when he had managed to actually take over the world. Khrista and her cousins had managed to assist a group called the Underground in a final battle type of senario, and the girl had managed to gain new powers at a price: she was now part Pokemon. Part Mew, to be precise. This means that she can access any Pokemon move whenever she wants to -- with the after-affect of being weakened by whatever Type is strong against the move she wants to use, of course. Thus explaining why Khrista was flying through the air and was capable of sparring with Pokemon.

While Khrista was mulling over memories of the past, something small and very fast flew at her out of nowhere, causing the teen to stop short in surprise as the said something hit her chest. The impact caused it to start to fall to the ground, and Khrista moved quickly in order to pick it up, surprised to find that the creature was, in fact, a bird that wasn't natural to the area.

"What is a Flicky doing here?" Khrista asked herself, frowning down at the light blue, big-headed bird in her hands. Taking note that the bird was knocked out and probably wouldn't respond to a telepathic prodding too well, she muttered, "I've got to go find Joshua." She promptly turned and flew back the way she had come. It wasn't long before her hometown was on the horizon.

As Khrista landed on top of her home's roof and slipped into the window, she nearly fell off the building in surprise upon finding a boy with brown hair and hazel eyes with green specs standing in her room. He was wearing a simple blue T-shirt and an identically-colored pair of Bermuda shorts.

"Joshua," Khrista identified, "what are you doing in my house? Alia said that you were getting ready to go on a cruise with your parents."

"We thought the sea wasn't exactly a good place to be," Joshua responded. "My parents are downstairs asking your parents if they want the tickets. The Carlsdales already declined."

Khrista raised an eyebrow at this. "Okay.... Any particular reason that you're in my room?"

"We need to talk," Joshua replied. He dug into his pocket and removed from it a small, handheld device that looked like a blue Gameboy Advance. "I've been picking up strange readings from the area lately -- mostly from your house. I wanted to check it out."

"Strange readings?" Khrista asked. "What do you mean by strange?"

"Like, 'every other day there's an energy spike' strange." Joshua motioned to Khrsita's room, complete with its white walls, fluffy pink carpet, and posters of video game franchises Khrista had come across over the years. "It seems to originate from here."

Khrista frowned. "From my house?"

"From your room." Joshua waved the Gameboy around, most likely trying to find the source of the whatever-it-was. "I have a bigger one at my house in the basement, and it picked up the energy spike a few days ago. I've been trying to figure out why it's been going off ever since." His eyes went to the small figure in Khrista's arms. "What's that?"

Khrista glanced down at the bird. "Oh, this? I'd almost forgotten that I had it." She adjusted the blue bird's position in her arms. "I found it this morning when I was out flying."

Joshua leaned forward to inspect the Flicky, only to have his device suddenly start beeping like crazy. Looking at the device quickly, he surmised, "The energy spike I got from your room a few days ago is exactly the same as the one I'm getting from the Flicky.." He looked at the bird again. "How do you think it got here?"

Khrista frowned, then made her way over to a bookshelf on the wall opposite her bed, which was by the door. "I think the answer's somewhere in here...aha!" Khrista removed one of the books and started to flip through it, careful not to jostle the Flicky.

Joshua came over. " _Sonic the Hedgehog Comic Encyclopedia_?"

Khrista nodded. "I got it a few weeks back from Barnes&Noble, to keep track of all the characters Archie Comics uses." She pointed to a page with a lot of text and a few well-drawn pictures of Flickies. "According to this, Flickies can travel from Zone to Zone with very little trouble -- there's a natural Warp Ring that they use on Flicky Island to go from Sonic's Zone to theirs." She closed the book with a snap and placed it back on the shelf. "It would only make sense that there might be a Warp Ring from the Flicky Zone to our world."

Joshua gave his cousin a strange look. "You have been reading too many comic books."

"Yeah, sure. And you've been playing too much MegaMan lately with Matthew when our band isn't practicing -- you almost _look_ like Rock, minus the eyes."

Joshua sighed and shook his head. "Look, I've been trying to figure out what exactly Maria did that caused Neo-Earth's history to change, but I haven't found anything in the games. It's like she doesn't even exist."

"It goes back to that Multiverse theory she told us about before," Khrista replied. "Different worlds have different actions. Like how the main games say nothing about the Pokemon Explorers, but we know that they exist -- they just live where the human's can't. The other worlds do exist, but Maria can go where the main events don't necessarily happen without other things taking place."

"...That made no sense," Joshua stated flatly.

"She went to an alternate reality," Khrista stated, annoyed that her explanation hadn't worked.

"I know that! I was just wondering if there was some sort of...ripple effect or something!"

"Ripple effect?"

Khrista and Joshua froze upon hearing the chirp-like voice. The two looked at each other before they started to look around the room in order to find the source.

"Looking for me?" a voice suddenly chirped in Khrista's ear. Khrista jumped at the sound of the voice, causing those in the room to suddenly burst out into laughter.

Khrista's head turned, and she caught sight of the Flicky, sitting on her shoulder. "Yeah, I kinda was," she admitted. "It's good to see that you're all right after bumping into me like that."

The Flicky seemed to smile, delighted that the human actually cared. It looked around, a curious look on its face. "So, where am I?"

"On Earth," Khrista replied. "Specifically, my bedroom."

"Earth?" the Flicky repeated, cocking its head to one side. "I haven't heard of that name before." The bird let out a sigh and bowed its head. "But its definitely not the one that I was looking for. Looks like I'll have to try again."

"Where were you looking for?" Khrista asked, frowning. "If you need help, I know a couple people who might be able to get you where you need to go."

"Make that one," Joshua corrected. "Maria disappeared practically as soon as school got out, remember?"

"For where?"

"She said something about an invitation to some sort of tournament."

"Oh." Khrista let out a sigh. "Well, is Liz still here?"

"Last I checked."

The Flicky let out a long sniffle. "Do you really think they'll be able to get me to the home of the legendary being that contains eighteen different Types from another world? Because that's kind of who I'm looking for. Every world I end up on, though, points me in a different direction."

"A being with eighteen Types?" Khrista repeated in surprise. She looked down at her shirt, which was still sky blue. "Well, I've got access to them, but I wouldn't necessarily call me a Multi-Type kind of girl."

The Flicky on her shoulder stiffened, and it looked at Khrista in shock. "What's your name?" it asked cautiously.

"Uh...I'm Khrista, and this is my cousin, Joshua," Khrista replied, motioning between herself and her blue-themed relative.

The Flicky's eyes widened. "What luck! I've been scouring the multiverse for you!"

Khrista gave the bird a look of surprise. "You have? Why?"

"We've got a BIG problem on my world, and I've heard from a few people that you guys might be able to help us out!" The Flicky looked between Khrista and her cousins. "What do you day? Can you help?"

"Well, I'd certainly be more than willing," Khrista answered. She looked over at Joshua. "What do you think?"

Joshua, who had been frowning thoughtfully at the Flicky, turned his gaze to Khrista. "There's something off about this bird, Khrista. I don't think we should trust it."

Khrista frowned in response. "What makes you say that?"

The Flicky frowned, as well, making the blue bird look like its feathers were starting to slide down the front of his head and cover his eyes.

Joshua held up his Gameboy-like device. _"I made this specifically to look for metallic signatures that don't necessarily belong in the area,"_ he explained. _"The fact alone that a Flicky bird -- a being organic in nature -- would match the metallic signature exactly worries me."_

Khrista blinked, and it took her a moment to register the fact that Joshua had used telepathy to talk to her. Her frown deepened, making it look like her blue eyes were darkening. _Why would a Flicky have anything metallic on it? Robotnik tried to go after them in the Prime Zone, meaning that they'd probably have an adversity to the stuff._

 _"Exactly."_ Joshua turned his attention to the Flicky on Khrista's shoulder; the bird was looking increasingly nervous. _"Meaning that something is definitely wrong here."_

"Why are you looking at me like that?" the Flicky asked nervously. When Joshua didn't answer, the blue bird took off from Khrista's shoulder and attempted to fly out of Joshua's line of sight by going behind his cousin. However, Joshua simply moved around and started to lift the device in his hands.

"What are you doing?" the Flicky squeaked. "Please, tell --"

The bird never got to finish its statement.

Joshua threw the Gameboy-like device at the big-headed bird and hit it in the face dead-on. As soon as the two connected, both exploded.

Khrista jumped in surprise as the remains of the two fell to the bedroom floor...only it just looked like a pile of parts and a puddle of oil that was staining the carpet.

"W-what?" She looked at Joshua. "How did that happen?"

"The energy was starting to spike again, like it was ready to send us all without warning," Joshua replied. "And you said the organic ones can use Warp Rings, so I put two and two together." He walked over to the Robo-Flicky's remains and sifted through the parts. "A lot of this is too far advanced to be something from Earth, no doubt about that. And the Pokemon world hasn't invested in robot production. That leaves us with one place that might have access to Flickies...." Joshua came up with a small, golden ring that had most likely been the power source of the 'bot.

"Mobius," Khrista stated, eyes wide. A frown came over her face. "But how do you think that Eggman might have found out about us? I mean, it's not like he could have traveled to the Pokemon World." She paused. "Could he?"

"I don't think _he_ ever went there, considering that there was already an alternate on that world, from what Maria's told us," Joshua responded as he continued to go through the robot's remains. "However, that doesn't mean that Cyrus didn't go to _him_. That 'K' we found on the device Cyrus used to get away is probably a version of Eggman's symbol."

Khrista frowned. "But how is that possible? Eggman uses his face in the games, not a letter."

Joshua thought for a moment. "It could be that this Eggman is an alternate version of the one we know from the video games," he suggested.

Khrista frowned, but then her eyes widened. "That's right! In the comics, Eggman replaced Robotnik at issue 75, because he had come from a world that no longer had a Sonic, and the vacuum needed to be filled. Maybe one of the alternate dimension 'Eggmans' managed to interact with Cyrus in some way."

Joshua nodded. "A sound theory." He help up the ring again. "But how to reach that place is going to be another matter."

"What do you mean? We got to the Pokemon World just fine."

"Because we were dragged there, and Maria got us back out again. If we're going to head to this version of Mobius, we're going to need someone -- or something -- that can get us there."

"The bird was probably capable of doing that," Khrista remarked, motioning to the remains of the Flicky. "Maybe you could put something together using it's remains."

Joshua shook his head. "That would take too long. We still have our parents downstairs, and if I do get it done, you might already be out on that cruise."

Khrista's eyes narrowed upon hearing this. "Well, what do you suggest, then? We all hold the ring and I use Teleport on us?"

"Actually, yes."

Khista stared at her cousin in surprise.

"Just hear me out." Joshua held up the ring. "This is obviously one of the rings you can come across on Mobius, and even though I can't use it, I can still sense the power that's emanating from it. If you can tap into that power, we can probably get enough energy out of it from a one-way trip to Mobius."

"One-way?" Khrista repeated.

"We both know that a ring's power doesn't last for long once it's been tapped into, and we can always pick up another ring if we want to go back." Joshua held the ring out to Khrista. "What do you say?"

Outside of the bedroom, the two could head footsteps approaching the door.

Taking this into account, Khrista nodded. "All right. Just give me a minute to get a few things." Going for her bed, Khrista got on her knees and thrust an arm underneath it, coming up a moment later with a red backpack and a red device that looked very much like a 3DS. "Like it or not, we might end up needing some help."

Joshua nodded. "I already have mine, so I'm ready when you are." He held out the ring towards his cousin

Khrista dropped the red device in her backpack and threw it over one shoulder. "Here goes nothing."

She reached out and wrapped her right pointer finger around the ring, closed her eyes, and concentrated on sending the ring home along with herself and her cousin. Without hesitation, Khrista's shirt when from sky blue to gold, and the ring responded instantly, a bright glow coming off it. When the glow seemed to have filled the room, it suddenly vanished...taking the kids with it.

"Kristine?" a voice called. "Kristine, honey, are you in there?" A woman with bright red hair and blue eyes opened the door. "Your fa--"

She stopped short upon seeing the room empty except for a few mechanical parts on the floor and the bedroom window wide open from Khrista's entrance into her room. "Robert!"


	2. Chapter 2

Khrista shook her head as the light began to fade, leaving spots in her eyes as the world around her darkened to twilight. "Did it work?"

She looked around for her cousin, then found Joshua getting up from the ground.

"I think it did, " Joshua replied. He looked around at the area they were standing in. "How else do you think we ended up in this forest?"

Khrista looked around and realized that Joshua was right -- the two of them were standing in a clearing, the oak and cedar trees that surrounded them towering high over their heads.

Khrista let out a whistle in amazement. "Wow. I don't think trees of this kind can get this big at home. Or on the Pokemon world." She grinned at her cousins. "We're probably in the Great Forest!"

"Great Forest?" a voice repeated. "We don't call this place the Great Forest."

Joshua frowned, and he started to look around for the source of the voice, as did Khrista.

"What do you call it, then?" the boy called out.

A Mobian echidna with green fur, golden eyes, peach mouth and stomach, and a white crescent-shape on his chest appeared out of nowhere.

"This place is the Giant Forest," the echidna stated, motioning to the trees for emphasis. The Mobian adjusted the black gloves he was wearing, which matched the boots that came up to his knees. "My name is Verdun, and I don't care much for intruders in this forest." A pair of spikes came up out of each glove, not even tearing the fabric. "Clear out before I make you."

Khrista folded her arms across her chest. "We only just got here, we don't know anything about the geography, and you expect us to leave?"

"That's what I said," Verdun confirmed. "Now, clear out."

Joshua stepped forward, holding out a hand. "At least tell us what's going on around here. My cousin found a robotic Flicky on our world, powered by this." Joshua tossed the power ring in Verdun's direction, the gold ring now dulled -- it had lost all its power. "We came by to see what was going on."

Verdun's eyes narrowed as he examined the ring. "And you say you found this in the belly of a Flick-bot?"

"If that's what you call it," Khrista responded with a shrug. "I ran into it during one of my usual morning flights. Name's Khrista, by the way, and this is my cousin, Joshua."

Verdun raised an eyebrow at Khrista's statement, but said nothing as he retracted his spikes and slipped the ring under the cuff of his left glove. "Ivan probably sent the lookalike after you for one reason or another. And from the look of the ring, it was meant to take you out for good. How did you manage to get rid of it?"

"I threw one of my devices at it," Joshua admitted. "It was originally meant to track signals, but it had an unstable core which blew up as soon as it was shaken up and hit the 'bot. We took the ring from its remains."

The echidna looked over the strange group for a moment, then let out a whistle. A red Flicky with a sprig of feathers sticking out of its head appeared from out of the darkness of the closely grouped trees.

"Yes, Master Verdun?" the Flicky asked in perfect English.

"Tell Quill that I'm coming by for a visit," Verdun replied. "And that I'm bringing two others with me."

The Flicky bobbed its head, then zoomed off.

Khrista frowned. "Quill? Who's Quill?"

"A very ornery Mobian," Verdun replied. "It'll take us a few days to get to his place. Let's get moving." He motioned for them to follow, then disappeared into the trees behind him. Khrista and her cousins soon followed.

"How did you know it was a Flicky?" Verdun asked as they left the clearing behind them.

"In our world, we get these books and games that show us events that take place in other worlds," Joshua explained. "One such world is Mobius Prime, which is probably an alternate version to this one."

Verdun looked back at the human boy. "You are aware of what another version of this world is doing?"

Joshua nodded. "Their lives are recorded in books, and the video games cover the lives of another version of them."

The echidna's golden eyes scanned the two humans. "Have you met them?"

Khrista and Joshua shook their heads.

"We only started the whole 'world-jumping' business about a couple weeks ago," Khrista explained.

"...I see. So you two have been to other places?"

"Only one, and we were taken there by an evil tyrant who was trying to create a brainwashed army of Pokemon Trainers."

Verdun turned around sharply. "Pokemon Trainers?" he repeated.

Khrista took note of a nervousness in Verdun's eyes. "...Yeah. We saved the world, though, so they shouldn't be bothering anyone on other worlds anytime soon."

Verdun approached the girl. "You're keeping something from me; I can sense it. Tell me!"

Khrista's eyes widened, and she exchanged glances with Joshua, who nodded in return.

"I'll tell him," the boy said. Turning to look at Verdun, he stated, "The tyrant we saved that world from escaped with his scientist before we could put him on trial or even in a highly-guarded cell. He disappeared using a device that allowed him to teleport to another place -- perhaps even another world."

Verdun's eyes narrowed.

"The only clue we have of where he might have gone was a K carved into the device," Joshua added.

Verdun's eyes became slits. "We're going to postpone that visit to Quill. You kids need to see the Guerrilla Union." He turned and took off at a jog through the trees, Khrista and her cousin following mere moments behind him.

 _"What do you think the Guerrilla Union is?"_ Joshua contacted Khrista through telepathy.

 _"Probably a version of the Freedom Fighters,"_ Khrista responded in kind. _"At least, I hope. Scourge, an evil version of Sonic, had his own brand of Freedom Fighters, only they suppressed it instead of fought for it. If this world is like Scourge's, we're in trouble."_

Joshua nodded. _"We'll have to keep our guard up."_

Khrista turned her head to look at Verdun, her mind drifting back to think about what had occurred in the Pokemon World -- or Neo-Mobius, as one of her neighbors had insisted on calling it. Over the past few weeks back on Earth, the teen had often found herself mulling over what had taken place, as well as what her cousin had done. Joshua had somehow managed to gain IQ almost overnight, and his family's basement had been turned into his own personal lab. Khrista's cousin's telepathy ability had increased in strength as well....

Up ahead, Verdun suddenly came to a halt, Khrista barely managing to stop before she could have run into the green echidna.

"We're here," Verdun said calmly.

The pair of humans looked ahead, Khrista's eyes widening in surprise.

"What is this place called?" Khrista asked.

"TreeShroud Village," Verdun replied.

As Verdun led the two travelers across a rope bridge, Khrista tried to take in the view: a gigantic tree growing out of a huge crater, its branches wide enough for a couple Volkswagon beetles to drive past each other without worrying about falling off. The houses, which were made of branches and huge leaves from the tree itself, were scattered throughout the tree's branches, and were camouflaged well enough that Khrista didn't notice them until Verdun had pointed one out.

"This is incredible," Khrista murmured,

"Does the Prime world live like this?" Verdun asked, curious.

Khrista shook her head. "They live on the ground."

Verdun raised an eyebrow. "Not the best idea. They could be picked off easily."

"They're trees don't grow this tall, and if one did, it could have been knocked down easily in a lightning storm." Khrista shrugged. "Ah, well. To each their own, I guess."

"Perhaps the ground is safe in their world, but it isn't in ours after dark," Verdun stated. He led them into the center of the tree, ignoring the looks they were getting from the Mobians nearby. Khrista couldn't help but notice that the Mobians in this world came in colors that she hadn't seen in the comics.

"Hey, Verdun!"

The mentioned echidna turned as a white female fox with golden eyes and two tails peeking out from under a dusty blue dress ran over. She was wearing yellow gloves and matching sandals.

"Where have you been?" the fox demanded. "Sarah was starting to wonder if you had decided to go out bot-hunting after dark again."

"I would have," Verdun replied, "but these two suddenly appeared out of nowhere." He motioned it Khrista and her cousin. "They claim to be from another world."

The fox looked Khrista and Joshua, curiousness in her eyes. "They certainly don't look like they're from around here. Tell me, please -- what are your names?"

"I'm Khrista," Khrista replied readily, holding out a hand for the fox to shake. "My traveling companion is my cousin, Joshua."

The fox accepted the gesture. "I'm Venice." Releasing Khrista's hand, she added, "Verdun's my adoptive sister."

"Adoptive?" Joshua repeated.

Venice nodded. "He saved my life, and his dad took me in." She looked over at Verdun. "They're in session right now. I was about to head out and find you. Sarah wanted your opinion on finding the Chaos Rings."

Khrista and Joshua exchanged glances.

"Chaos Rings?" the two repeated.

Venice took note of their confusion and giggled. "You really _aren't_ from our world, are you?" She gave the group a smile. "Chaos Rings are these really powerful rings made out of different crystals. It's been said that if you manage to get all of them together, a miracle happens!"

Khrista's eyes widened slightly. "How many of them are there?"

"According to legend, there are nine total," Verdun responded. "We only have one to show for it, though, and Quill is guarding that one. And then there are the fakes that Ivan's been making." He looked at Khrista for a moment. "You kids might want to listen in on this meeting that Sarah's called." He motioned for the group to follow him, then walked up to a large hut nearby and pushed the door open, leading Khrista and the others inside.

Within the hut, it looked like it could have been a log cabin, were it not for the leaves that covered the ceiling. The hut itself appeared to have two rooms -- there was a shut door that Khrista could only guess was a bedroom or bathroom -- and the main room had a table and eleven chairs as the only pieces of furniture.

Khrista quickly identified the eleven Mobians sitting around the table: a dark green echidna wearing white gloves and footwear that looked like a black version of Knuckles' shoes; a yellow hedgehog sitting with his back to them, wearing white gloves and white shoes with a red stripe; a black hedgehog with white stripes and Shadow's style of shoes; a purple chameleon with golden eyes and shoes and gloves like Espio from the Prime Zone; a green crocodile who Khrista almost mistook as Vector; a bee wearing an aviator's hat and goggles, looking identical to Charmy; a blue armadillo who looked like Mighty; a light brown rabbit and a white bat, both wearing grubby clothes covered in oil stains (despite this, their gloves were clean); an orange cat with a sword at his side and a dark green, elf-like uniform; and a white Mobian who Khrista thought might be a fox, but she couldn't see the Mobian's tail because the Mobian was staring directly at the door.

"Verdun," the white Mobian said, deep blue eyes flashing, voice clearly feminine, "who are those with you?"

"Travelers," Verdun responded. "I ran into them down below with this." He slipped the ring from under his left glove cuff and tossed it onto the table. "They claim they know the monsters."

All the Mobians in the room stared at Verdun, then turned gazes to Khrista and Joshua.

Khrista gave Verdun a curious look. "You're having problems with Pokemon?"

"Is that what they are called?"

Khrista turned her gaze to the white Mobian, who had taken hold of the ring in a dusty blue-gloved hand.

Placing the ring inside the golden jacket she wore, the Mobian continued, "We refer to them as the monsters they are when they attack in the night." The Mobian looked out a window nearby, where leaves partially obscured a view of the stars. Standing up, she made her way around the table to stand in front of the two humans, revealing three fox tails, as well as the dark blue boots on her feet. "I am Sarah Tripletail; you met my cousin, Venice, outside."

"I'm Khrista Langstrom," Khrista responded. "This is my cousin, Joshua."

Sarah frowned slightly and walked around the two, studying their appearances. "Verdun says you know about the monsters. Would you care to...demonstrate?"

Khrista smirked, only for her shirt to shift to gold, losing the yellow and white sphere and red coloring that had been there a moment before. Without moving physically, Khrista unzipped her backpack and brought out her PokeDex.

Snatching it out of the air while the Mobians stared, she stated, "A Magmortar, which is among some of the stronger Pokemon, could easily burn down this tree without a second thought. If I had _brought_ one here and ordered it to do that, that is." Waving the PokeDex, she continued, "This device had data on about 650 different species of Pokemon, including Magmortar." After messing around with the device, Khrista brought up a picture of Magmortar. Showing it to the white fox, she stated, "That's the Pokemon that could destroy this entire place with a single breath."

"That creature...."

Khrista turned her head slightly upon hearing the new voice and caught sight of the orange cat in the Robin Hood-like outfit staring at the Dex with wide, emerald eyes.

"That monster looks exactly like the ones that patrol near Kintobar's place!" the emerald-eyed cat exclaimed.

Khrista and Joshua exchanged a quick glance, which Sarah took note of, but said nothing about.

"Verdun mentioned someone named Ivan earlier," Joshua noted. "Is this... _Kintobar_ the same guy?"

Sarah nodded. "We have been having been trouble with the creatures for the past few weeks. Quill said that Ivan had claimed that he had grown them in a lab."

"Well, he might have," Khrista responded, "but the DNA came from the Pokemon world." Her eyes went around the room as she closed her PokeDex, a look on her face that meant she was trying to think of something.

"Well, you know who we are. Can you tell us who you are?" Khrista finally asked.

The orange cat looked the group over as the other Mobians exchanged glances -- and the dark green echidna restrained the yellow hedgehog.

After a moment, the orange cat held out a white-gloved hand.

"I am Hannibal," the cat stated, "the captain of the Royal Guard."

Khrista accepted his gesture and gave the hand a shake. "I suppose there's a king or queen somewhere around here?"

"My parents were killed by Kintobar," Sarah stated flatly.

Khrista's eyes widened, and she held up her hands in a defensive maneuver. "S-sorry. I didn't know."

"I like to keep it under wraps, but it is all right."

The yellow hedgehog suddenly sprang up, blue eyes sparking. "I'm Kambei, and this is my older brother, Hambei."

The black hedgehog's red eyes moved to Khrista as Kambei continued, "We're part of the remnants of an ancient hedgehog tribe that used to live to the south of here."

"Ivan decided to wipe out the rest," Hambei said coldly. Khrista wondered if he was Shadow's counterpart, but decided against calling him that until she was certain.

"Does this guy have anything against hedgehogs?" Khrista asked. She knew that Ivan Kintobar was probably a version of Eggman, and she wondered if he had the same dislike for a specific species that the Prime Zone's Robotnik had.

"He ran into them first," the dark green echidna explained. "These two had been out camping the night Ivan had turned their civilization to rubble." He stood up, dark purple eyes on the humans. "I am Sabre, Verdun's father. We're sharing our home with these ground-dwellers until this threat is taken care of."

"And we thank you for it," Sarah stated.

The purple chameleon stood up next, the crocodile, bee, and blue armadillo mimicking his movement. "My name is Espio, and these three are Vector, Charmy, and Ceryl. I am the leader of the Chaotix."

Khrista nodded in greeting, relieved to see some slightly familiar faces from the comics she knew.

"They help guard our storage of Rings, all of which are artificially made," Verdun explained to the travelers.

"We would keep an eye on the real one, too, but Quill's got a hold of that one and he's not letting it out of his sight anytime soon," Vector grumbled, crossing his arms over his chest and leaning back in his chair.

"Speaking of which...." Khrista looked around the table at the assembled Mobians. "What kind of Mobian is Quill?"

"All in good time," Sarah replied calmly. She moved over to stand in between the rabbit and the bat, the former which Khrista now realized couldn't have been much older than another rabbit she knew from the video games.

"These two would be our mechanics, Naomi and White Fang," Sarah explained. "They've been trying to figure out how Kintobar has been creating those Rings."

Naomi -- the rabbit -- scratched the back of her head, looking a little embarrassed. "We've only figured out to recharge them, Miss T. The only way to figure out how to make them would be to tear them apart, and the only way for _that_ to happen would be to do it the way that Kintobar's been threatening to destroy the forest."

"We will find another way," White Fang encouraged. She sounded older, more experienced -- fourteen or fifteen years old, at least. "Without the nuclear power Kintobar uses."

"Nuclear?" Khrista repeated, her eyes widening slightly. "Kintobar's threatened to destroy this place with nuclear weaponry?" She looked over at Sarah. "Could you fill us in on what's happened so far?"

Sarah blinked, but then frowned slightly. "How do we know we can trust you? You could be spies from wherever it is that Cyrus came from."

The two humans stiffened upon hearing the suggestion, and Khrista gained an annoyed expression.

"If anything, the only thing we would by looking for would be that wanted criminal," Khrista growled as her blue eyes narrowed. The brown-haired teen slammed on the table at a spot between Sabre and Kambei, who looked at her in surprise. "Cyrus tried to take over our world, but he escaped with Charon before we could put him on trial. We found proof that they ran here, and you've proven that twice over by mentioning Cyrus." She glared at Sarah, who was looking at the PokeHuman with a slightly surprised expression.

"We're also aware of what different versions of Kintobar have done in other worlds," Joshua continued, getting the Mobians' attention. "As he has already destroyed a tribe of hedgehogs, it's obvious that he has no ambition of learning from you or becoming an ally. Because he's partnered himself with our enemies, I find it likely that he will try to annihilate you as soon as he can."

A grim silence fell over the room upon hearing Joshua's statement.

"How can you be sure?" Ceryl finally asked. The blue Mighty-like armadillo gave Joshua a dark look.

"We've seen it in other worlds before," Khrista spoke up, turning her blue eyes from the white fox to the blue Chaotix member. "Comic books, video games, TV shows--they all show that Robuttnik will do anything in order to get rid of the thorns in his side. There are even places where he's succeeded."

Khrista stepped away from the table, her shirt shifting from gold back to red with the yellow and white sphere on her chest. Her blue eyes went around the table as she added, "And we're not going to let it happen to you guys."

The Mobians sitting and standing around the table exchanged glances upon hearing Khrista's declaration. Some of them frowned and shook their heads at one another, but most looked at Sarah with curious, expectant faces.

The white, triple-tailed fox looked around the table, her face not betraying any of her thoughts. Finally, she looked back at Khrista and Joshua. "And you're absolutely committed to your cause? You're more than willing to assist us?"

"Cyrus and Charon need to face justice for their crimes against their own world," Joshua replied smoothly. "We'll help you take care of the problems they've caused."

Sarah considered this, then gave a nod. "Very well, you can help us. However, we won't be able to fill you in on our situation now. I suggest you get some rest--it's going to be a long day ahead of you." The white fox turned to look at the echidna who had brought the two humans. "Verdun, they're going to need to stay somewhere for the night. Do you know of a place where they may be able to sleep undisturbed?"

The green hedgehog thought for a moment, then gave a slight nod. "I do. There's a hut at the top of the tree that has yet to be claimed. I doubt these two would mind sharing."

"So long as there are separate beds," Joshua responded.

"I believe that can be arranged." Sarah motioned towards the door. "Go. I'll fill you in tomorrow morning."

Khrista gave a slight bow. "Thanks. Good night." With that, she followed Verdun and her cousin out of the building.


	3. Chapter 3

Khrista woke up the next morning to the sound of a door being slammed into. Repeatedly.

"All right, all right, I'm up," Khrista muttered as she sat up and slipped out from underneath the covers of her bed. She walked sluggishly over to the door of her room and opened it, only to jump back in surprise when a Mobian came tumbling to the ground.

"Sorry!" Khrista yelped. She held out a hand in order to help the green echidna in front of her up. "I didn't realize you were so close to the door there."

The echidna looked up and scowled at the human in front of him, then got to his feet while ignoring the hand offered to him.

"The other human is already up," the echidna grunted. He turned and started to walk out of the room.

"He's my cousin," Khrista corrected. She rubbed the back of her neck. "And...thanks for letting us stay here."

The echidna stopped and looked back, eyeing the teen with violet eyes that carried a guarded expression. After a moment, however, he just turned and walked around a corner and out of Khrista's sight.

The blue-eyed teen let out a sigh and shook her head. "They must have something against humans because of this Kintobar guy," she muttered. Khrista started for the door of her bedroom, pausing only for a moment in order to pull on her shoes. "I hope Josh and I can change their opinions on that."

"You know I don't like to be called Josh, Khrista." Joshua was leaning against a wall in the hallway, his arms crossed over his chest. He looked bored, somehow.

"Sorry, slipped my mind," Khrista replied quickly with a careless wave. "Come on -- let's see if we can get any breakfast before we go find out what's going on and what we have to do."

"Right."

The two walked down the short hall and entered the main part of the hut they were staying in -- a kitchen/living room combination. The green echidna that had woken Khrista up was already there, working on something with a frying pan. A bowl of fruit sat on the table, and Khrista was delighted to see that most of what was in it was recognizable.

"Do you need any help?" Joshua asked, his attention remaining on the back of the green echidna's brown jacket.

The echidna turned and gave Joshua a dark look. "No. I can partially see why Sabre would ask that the two of you be allowed to stay here and work as someone to help us, but I'm not about to trust you with my breakfast." He motioned with his head towards the bowl of fruit on the table. "You can take something from there, if you want."

"Thanks!" Khrista snagged an apple from the bowl and promptly took a large bite out of the fruit. The sound of a crisp apple getting mashed by her teeth soon filled the small room.

Khrista swallowed the bite and licked her lips. "This tastes a lot better than the ones we have back home," she noted. She looked over at the echidna. "Do you guys grow these yourselves?"

The echidna's violet eyes narrowed. "No. We share the trees here in Giant Forest with all living creatures; the Flickies bring us a share of the crop when it is ripe, not the other way around."

"Oh, really?" Khrista's eyebrows shot up. "Huh. I didn't think of that."

"I'm surprised you can think at all," the echidna replied bitterly.

Khrista rolled her eyes at the statement and took another bite out of her apple. "Is there any particular reason that you hate us other than the goonies who have been giving you trouble recently? Because we came here to help you out and get a couple of those goonies off your world and make your life a whole lot easier."

The echidna scowled, but then he returned his attention to what he was cooking and said nothing more.

Joshua grabbed an apple from the bowl himself and started eating. After swallowing a bite, he stated, "Khista, just don't. It's obvious that he's not going to let go of his beliefs so easily."

It took a few minutes for the two cousins to finish off the fruits. The echidna turned around with his skillet and what looked like might have been crystalized fruits when he saw Khrista taking out the apple seeds and pocketing them.

"What are you doing?" he asked cautiously.

"The seeds can be used to plant more trees," the teen replied. "Since we can't eat them, I figured that I may as well try and find a clear place to plant a couple apple trees later. I mean, you guys have been facing deforestation from Kintobar, right?"

The echidna blinked, unsure of how to answer the question.

"Khrista's seen what Robotniks have done to other worlds," Joshua added. "He nearly tore down the Great Forest in the Prime Zone if it wasn't for the Freedom Fighters."

"If we can plant more trees, then the forest can grow back from any damage that Kintobar might have done." Khrista shrugged. "Easy."

The echidna blinked, looking like he hadn't been expecting that statement to come from Khrista's mouth. Then he shook his head and dumped the crystallized fruit onto the only plate that was on the table. "Here. You're going to need to eat some of this."

Khrista and Joshua exchanged glances, shrugged, then each took a piece of what looked like had been an orange. They swallowed the bite-sized morsels without so much as a second thought.

Khrista licked her lips. "That tasted pretty good," she noted. She gave the echidna a nod. "Thanks."

The echidna gave a nod in return, then started for the door and motioned for the two humans to follow him. "Come on. I'd better get you two to the council before they start to wonder what's keeping you two."

The trio stepped out of the hut and into the morning sunlight, which actually wasn't as bright at Khrista had suspected it might have been. But then she saw why -- the sun was only just starting to peek above the trees, which, although they were somewhat shorter than the tree they were now standing in, were still able to rival the height of the trees that the two humans were used to.

Khrista took in a breath of the fresh, morning air and started down the tree branch after her cousin and the echidna, who had not stopped to admire the sunrise.

As the trio lowered themselves into the more inhabited parts of the tree, Khrista and her cousin were forced to move out of the way of multiple Mobians as they went bustling from one hut to another, carrying bundles that looked like they were anything between fruit and machinery--at least, that's what it looked like to Khrista, when a bat ran by with a white bundle covered in oil stains.

"What's going on?" the blue eyed teen asked, looking at their echidna guide.

"Preparations," came the reply.

"For what?" Khrista paused as a red Mobian moved by her so quickly that she wasn't able to see what species it was.

"It looks like they're preparing for everything," Joshua remarked. His hazel, green-speckled eyes went over the activities that were going on without so much as a hint of curiosity.

"You're correct in that regard. Anything can happen in a single solar cycle, so we must be prepared for what lies ahead."

_*Solar cycle?*_

Khrista blinked upon hearing the woman's voice in her head, but it was so faint that she just decided that she was probably imagining things.

The trio soon reached the hut that Verdun had led the cousins to the day before. The windows were open, and Khrista could hear what sounded like arguing going on inside the hut. She had yet to learn whose voices were whose, however, so she was unable to tell who it was that was arguing.

Their echidna guide let out an irritated growl. "Sounds like Verdun can't get his head on straight again."

"What do you mean?" Khrista asked.

"He's rash, that's what I mean. He's going to learn someday that charging into battle with his claws out isn't always the best idea." The echidna turned to look at the two humans. "You'd better get in there, at least. Maybe you're being there will get him to calm down."

"I doubt it," Joshua muttered in reply.

Khrista ignored him, instead giving the echidna a nod before turning towards the door of the hut and stepping inside the open doorway.

Inside, it looked like some sort of tornado had hit and left everything intact, just thrown all over the place. The table the Mobians had been sitting around before had now been tilted on its side and looked like it might have been thrown into the wall. Some of the chairs were still standing, but not every single Mobian from the night before was present.

Instead, it was just Verdun (who looked like he wanted to murder something), Hannibal the Cat (who was holding Verdun back), and Sarah Tripletail (who looked strangely calm, considering her surroundings).

Khrista blinked. "Did we come in at a bad time?" she asked hesitantly.

The three Mobians looked over at the human standing in the doorway with slightly surprised expressions. After a moment, Sarah came over, her three fox tails moving in graceful ripples as she moved. Khrista quickly noted that the white fox had changed her attire from the night before: instead of a gold jacket, she now had on a dark blue one with matching boots.

"I'd say you came at just the right time," Sarah told Khrista after coming to a stop in front of the human. "Come; there are a few things we have to discuss." She motioned for Khrista and her cousin to come further inside, then moved to stand where she had been when the pair arrived. "We were just discussing with Verdun what we should do, on account that Kintobar has made allies with enemies of yours."

"I say we go attack them now," Verdun growled. He slipped his arms out of Hannibal's grip and looked around the group. "We have two humans who could help us destroy Kintobar once and for all because of their knowledge of his allies!"

"You told us before that you were going to take us to see Quill," Joshua suddenly spoke up. "When we first arrived here. Are you going to push that back even further?"

Verdun blinked, and Hannibal and Sarah both gave him odd looks.

"You know that Quill doesn't take too kindly to Overlanders, Verdun," the orange cat growled, green eyes narrow. "What makes you think that these two should go see him?"

"Uh...we're not Overlanders?" Khrista suggested, shrugging with a hopeful expression on her face.

"That may be true, but Quill will only see the resemblance," Hannibal replied gruffly. "Especially after what he has seen during his lifetime."

"You still haven't explained who Quill is," Joshua noted. "Or what exactly your trouble is on this world." The hazel-eyed teen looked around the room. "And I doubt that now is a good time for fighting."

Verdun grunted. "Yeah. Fighting among ourselves, you mean."

Sarah send the green echidna an annoyed look, then let out a sigh and shook her head. "There's too much to be said about what we have problems with."

"Then summarize," Khrista suggested. "If you don't get to everything, just cover what you feel is important."

"At this point, everything could be important," Joshua pointed out in response, giving his cousin a look. "I say we should hear everything that's happened."

Khrista rolled her eyes at her cousin's statement and let out a sigh of annoyance.

Sarah, Hannibal, and Verdun exchanged glances upon hearing this, then gave a slight nod to each other.

"We'll begin with Ivan Kintobar's arrival," Sarah stated. "That was about ten years ago, when we were still young, and my parents ruled a kingdom that was once located to the north of us."

Khrista and Joshua exchanged glances. Khrista wasn't sure what was going through her cousin's brown-haired head, but she was certain of what was going through hers: Sarah's kingdom was most likely the Robotropolis of this world.

"Kintobar came looking for shelter; he claimed to have come from another planet and wanted to get to know us," Hannibal stated grimly. "My father, the Captain of the Palace Guard, was suspicious of him and told me everything the Overlander did as time went on. All he did was go around and ask questions, then disappear for hours at a time for his private quarters. Whatever he did there, my father didn't know until he forced himself in one night and looked for what it was that the Overlander was doing."

"Did he finally lose his patience?" Khrista guessed.

"No; Overlanders were starting to come in droves," Verdun replied grimly. "Those four-fingered travelers were tearing up our forests and building cities. And they hunted the animals that we protect here."

"I should have thought as much," Joshua noted. "Even where we come from, people don't really have all that much of a regard for what they have until it starts to run out. There are groups attempting to reverse the problem on our world."

"Then you are doing more than they were," the green echidna stated. His golden eyes narrowed. "We told them to stay away from certain creatures and which ones they could eat to bring down their populations to reasonable levels, but the Overlanders ignored our pleas. Were it not for Quill of the Spine Tribe, I don't doubt that they would have done even more damage."

"There's that Quill guy again...." Khrista muttered.

"This is not the same Quill as the one Verdun was going to bring you to meet," Sarah spoke up. "The Spine Tribe--a group of hedgehogs--always refer to their leader as Quill."

"Oh." Khrista blinked. "So it's just a title, then?"

"It is not 'just a title' to these hedgehogs," Hannibal replied. "It is the name that is given to their leader when the old one passes. Until they are worthy of the name, they are given others based on their personalities...or, in some cases, abilities. The present Quill was previously known among his people as Sonic."

Khrista stiffened, and she looked over at Joshua. "Sonic? Seriously? The Mobian who hates Overlanders is Sonic?!"

"You know him?" Sarah asked, frowning.

"We know of him," Joshua replied. "Sonic the Hedgehog is the one who has been leading the attacks on Kintobar's counterpart in the Prime Zone. He's been known to easily forgive those he considers friends when they get on his nerves, and he's always running somewhere."

"And the only Overlander he has a problem with is the Eggman -- aka, Kintobar," Khrista added. "I can't really picture him as being mad with all of them...." The blue-eyed girl trailed off for a moment, then frowned. "Then again, your situation is different from his."

Hannibal nodded. "Kintobar discovered the Spine Tribe after they had started attacking the Overlander settlements and leaving them with warnings about the forest and its life. He tracked them using technology we didn't know he had, then set off to destroy them. My father broke into his quarters while he was gone and disappeared."

"Disappeared?" Khrista blinked. "How?"

"We still don't know." The orange cat shook his head. "And that was only the start of it."

"When my father heard about Kintobar's actions, he sent off a portion of the Guard in order to bring him back," Sarah spoke up. "They returned days later without Kintobar...and not in the same condition they had been when they were sent out."

"What do you mean?" Khrista asked, frowning.

"Isn't it obvious?" Joshua asked. "They'd probably been Robotosized."

Sarah gave a grim nod. "Yes. Kintobar had transformed them and ordered them to destroy the city...and capture and Robotosize every single Mobian they could get their hands on. Father arranged for everyone to be evacuated from the kingdom and sent here, where we knew we could be protected, but they found and captured most of us before the Spine Tribe came down on them and took us the rest of the way. In the commotion...a portion of the Mobians were killed by gunfire. My parents were among them."

"Gunfire...." Khrista frowned. "So did Kintobar turn the city into his fortress?"

"Fortress?" Verdun snorted. "He burned it to the ground and made sure that nothing could live there. He told anyone within earshot that it was a sign of what he would do to our world if we didn't let him turn the rest of us into robots. We've been fighting him ever since, but everything's been worn down into a stalemate."

Joshua frowned in thought. "Which means that Cyrus and Charon's arrival here--"

"As well as our own," Khrista added.

"--could very well turn the tables," Joshua finished. "If we can do anything to help, I would be more than willing to do so."

"Same here," Khrista spoke up, jamming a thumb into her chest. "These guys need to be taken out before they do anything more and completely take your world out of commission. Who knows what would happen then?"

"Exactly," Verdun agreed. "But before we're going to do anything, we're going to have to consult Quill. He's been out in the field more than the rest of us."

"Hmmmm...." Joshua gave a slight nod. "And...Venice mentioned something about Rings last night, but she didn't really go all that far into it. From what I remember, it sounds like the seven Chaos Emeralds and the Master Emerald on other versions of Mobius."

"Chaos Emeralds?" Sarah looked confused.

"Seven gems of power," Khrista spoke up. "They're each a different color, even though they're Emeralds, and the largest one is the eighth one -- the Master Emerald. It's kept an entire continent afloat on other planets, and it's usually guarded by echidnas." She looked over at Verdun, who raised an eyebrow, but said nothing. "The Emeralds have been used for both good and evil purposes -- it just depends on what the user wants to do. The versions of Sonic that I know of can use them to turn Super and take on large baddies they wouldn't have been able to do otherwise."

"The Chaos Rings are like that, in a way," Sarah murmured. Her blue eyes darkened as a frown came over her face. "They can adjust their size and shape of their own accord, depending on who finds them. It's been said that they used to be the rings of giants, but I've never been one to believe myths." She closed her eyes. "There are a total of seven rings, with two rings that can be referred to as their 'masters,' as you so aptly put it for the one Emerald of those other dimensions. These master rings reflect both the light and dark side of the chaotic magics."

"Light and dark...." Khrista frowned. "Where are these two Master Rings located, then?"

"No one knows," Verdun replied. "It's said they were lost when the war started."

"Okay, then. But what about the rest of them?"

"Scattered to the four winds."

Khrista, Verdun, Sarah, Hannibal, and Joshua turned their heads towards the entrance of the hut. The two humans' eyes widened upon seeing who was standing there.

A hedgehog with dark blue-gray quills walked into the hut, looking around at the group with dark green eyes that were extremely serious. Something about the dark look on his face made Khrista reconsider her previous statement that he was Sonic's counterpart.

"All of the rings were taken and scattered after the Wars of Beginning," the hedgehog continued. "Only one has been found." His dark green eyes flicked down to his gloved hands.

When Khrista's gaze followed, she caught sight of a flash of blue crystal before the hedgehog pulled the glove on his right hand up to keep it from sight. When she looked back up at the hedgehog's eyes, she found the dark green boring into her with a dark, suspicious expression.

"But what would Overlanders like you want with what we know?" the hedgehog continued. "If you're planning on hunting them down like Kintobar--"

"We came here to help you," Joshua replied calmly. "There are a couple wanted criminals here that we're going to find and take back to their proper world. If we can get them away from Kintobar, we'll leave you guys be."

The hedgehog -- Quill, Khrista mentally guessed -- looked over at Joshua and studied him for a moment. His green eyes narrowed. "Who are you?"

"I'm Joshua Langstrom, and this is my cousin, Khrista." Joshua motioned between he two of them. "We've had interactions with Cyrus and Charon before."

Khrista gave a nod. "It's caused more than his share of trouble on his own world."

"He is also the source of most of our problems," the hedgehog replied sourly.

"We heard about the Pokemon situation," Khrista replied. "We can handle them easily."

"You mean _you_ can," Joshua corrected pointedly.

"Not if you brought your PokeDex with you."

Joshua let out a growl of annoyance. "I do not carry that device with me everywhere I go, Khrista. I left it locked in a _safe_ at home. I didn't think we were going to be coming here until that robot Flicky showed up in your bedroom."

Khrista huffed. "Great. I'd been hoping for backup besides my own team if I'm going to be taking those Pokemon on!"

"Stop."

The cousins blinked, then looked over at the blue-gray hedgehog. There was a look in his eyes that looked more confused than annoyed.

"You two...you're not like the others," the hedgehog stated cautiously.

Joshua shook his head. "No, we're not. We have abilities --"

"I don't just mean that." Quill held up his right hand -- Khrista thought he was attempting to keep them from saying anything more, but then she saw something blue flash on his wrist. "Overlanders smell of toxic gasses and fallen trees. You two...you smell of those creatures below us and metal."

"Metal?" Khrista blinked. "I'd understand the whole Pokemon thing, but why metal?"

Quill shook his head and lowered his hand; the blue glow died. He looked like he was going to say something else, but then the entire hut suddenly shook and rattled everything.

"Whoa!" Khrista stumbled around for a moment before regaining her balance. "Wh-what's going on?!"

"I may have attracted some creatures' attention when I came here," Quill replied.

Hannibal let out a growl of annoyance. "You brought them here?! Quill, you of all people should have been able to keep them clear!" He dashed out of the hut, followed closely by Verdun. As soon as the two were outside of the hut, they started yelling orders.

"We'd better go and help," Joshua stated, looking at his cousin.

"Right," Khrista agreed with a nod. She started towards the door, but Sarah stepped into her path, forcing the human to stop short.

"You would only get in the way out there," the white fox stated, her blue eyes narrow.

"Just because we're humans doesn't mean we're powerless to help," Khrista replied stubbornly. "I know my way around Types. I can take down whatever Pokemon is coming at us."

"Let us pass," Joshua added seriously. "We know more about those creatures than you do, from what it sounds like. Khrista can handle them, believe me."

"Let them pass, Sarah."

The white, three-tailed fox turned her head and looked in Quill's direction, as did the two humans. There was a look in his eyes that didn't exactly make Khrista feel so good about having him on their side....

"Let's see what these Overlanders can do," the blue-gray hedgehog added.

Sarah appeared slightly uncertain, but then she gave a reluctant nod and stepped aside.

Khrista gave Quill a nod. "Thanks." Then she turned and dashed out onto the tree branch outside before moving to the edge and looking down through the leaves that branched out below. Even though the leafy growths blocked most of Khrista's vision at what was going on below, she did catch sight of flashes of fire...and red and yellow figures with cannons for arms.

"Magmortar," Khrista growled in annoyance. "They're probably here in order to try and burn down the tree. Better not let them run rampant." Her red shirt started to shift, the yellow and white sphere on the front disappearing as the red grew lighter and became a sky blue. Then half of it darkened and the two shades swirled together seconds before Khrista jumped off the tree branch.

"Wait! You're going to --"

Joshua grabbed the shoulder of the Mobian who had been yelling -- the little Cream the Rabbit lookalike whom Sarah had called Naomi the night before.

"Khrista knows what she's doing," Joshua stated. "You don't need to worry."

"But that drop -- it's more than even one of us could handle without the proper equipment!" the rabbit replied. Her honey-brown eyes were wide with worry. "And she wasn't wearing any of it!"

"What is your friend trying to do?" Quill demanded as he walked over to Joshua.

"My cousin is doing what she does best," Joshua replied. He looked down through the leaves. "And she's almost there."

Khrista, who had dove out of the tree head-first, started to gather energy together in her arms by concentrating on pulling in the moisture from the air around her. When she knew she had enough, the blue-eyed girl exclaimed, "Hydro Pump!"

A large blast of water seemed to materialize from out of nowhere, hitting an unfortunate red-and-yellow monster directly below her. The water washed out from where it had connected with its target, catching others by surprise and pushing them away from the base of the giant tree.

Since the attack had sufficiently slowed her fall, Khrista took advantage of the sky-blue half of her shirt and righted herself into what might have been a standing position...if she had then landed on the ground. Instead, taking note of something that she hadn't expected, the brown-haired girl hovered over the red and yellow creature she had taken out first.

"This doesn't look right...." Khrista started to reach for the red and yellow monster below her, but a sudden yell stopped her.

"What were you thinking?!" Verdun demanded as he slid down the tree trunk and landed on the ground with a _squelch._ "You could have gotten yourself killed!"

"I kind of knew what I was doing," Khrista replied, scowling at the green echidna. "Besides, if I hadn't hit them with water, I doubt we would have ever found out about _this."_ She pointed at the red and yellow mass beneath her...specifically at the spike of metal that was poking up and tearing away synthetic skin.

Verdun frowned and looked down at the form Khrista was hovering above. He pulled back sharply when a spurt of sparks suddenly came flying up and almost hit his nose. The green echidna's golden eyes widened,

"They're...machines," Verdun noted, surprised.

Khrista nodded. "And they're disguised to look like Pokemon, I guess." She lowered herself a little and nudged the head of the robot with a foot. Sparks flew up from the base of the neck when a piece of metal shifted. "At least they aren't real deals -- then that would mean Cyrus had come through with a bunch of his team, and _that_ wouldn't have been good." The blue-eyed girl frowned in thought. "Still, this much detail...it's kind of scary how alike they are to the real ones."

Verdun considered Khrista's statement for a moment, then gave a sly smile -- the first one that the human had seen on _any_ Mobian when their faces were directed towards her. "I like you, kid."

Khrista looked at he echidna in surprise, blinking in confusion. "What?"

"You rush headlong into a fight without thinking about what Kintobar might have done to these guys." He motioned to the collapsed robots. "You pack a pretty good punch, too."

"Really? Because I haven't really gotten all _that_ much training in since I got home after everything that happened on Cyrus' world...." Khrista rubbed the back of her head in embarrassment at the sudden compliments she was getting.

"I mean it." Verdun looked back up at the tree. "They'll be sending down a clean-up crew to take care of your mess. We should be getting back up here so that you can give a report of what happened...and explain what you just did there." The echidna's golden eyes looked Khrista over with some curiosity.

"Well, it's kinda a long story...."

"Hey -- don't worry about it. We've got all the time in the world around here."

**Spacial Break**

"We're running out of time!"

A man's clenched fist slammed down onto the table in front of him, round, dark glasses glinting in anger and frustration. "Giant Forest hasn't gotten any smaller in the time that you've been here, and all your Magma-bots have been doing is making the Mobians fight from where we can't see them!" The large, bright orange mustache that took up a large amount of space around his face twitched in anger as the man spoke. The small mop of orange hair on top of his pointed head also seemed ruffled.

"Calm yourself," came the response. A figure sitting in the dark shadows of the other half of the room held up a white-gloved hand. "We know where the Mobians have congregated -- that's what matters. It's simply a matter of time before --"

A metal door creaked open, stopping the second voice from continuing. The sound of metal hitting on metal resounded as someone took a few steps into the slightly darker lab.

"Ivan, Charon," the figure in the doorway stated without emotion. "The Magma unit that was sent into Giant Forest to burn the Mobians has gone offline."

The man with the orange mustache turned fully to face the figure in the door. "What happened?"

"We were followed." The figure shifted his gaze to look at the figure in the shadows. "The child known as Khrista is here."

There was a pause as this statement sunk in.

The figure in the shadows shifted, and there was the sound of a chair moving back. Footsteps resounded as the figure in the shadows moved out into the more lighted area of the lab, revealing white fur striped with black in the form of a spiral up towards the top of the figure's head.

"Now would be a good time to step up production," the white and black echidna stated coolly. Strange, mostly black eyes looked up at the human, the golden rings within gleaming with a strange sort of madness. "Ivan, we may have to move forward sooner than we had planned."

Ivan shook his head. "Impossible. Our resources are stretched thin enough as it is, what with the other phases of our plan still in production. Not all of the pieces have been gathered yet."

"Where is the ambition you had when we met?" the figure in the doorway demanded coldly. "Don't tell me you're going to give up now."

Ivan frowned. "My ambition still stands, _Cyrus._ Do not judge me for being cautious. That hedgehog still has a Ring in his possession, and until we find the Dark Ore that their ancient texts speak of --"

"Fine. Search for your rock, then," the only unnamed figure sneered. He walked towards the door, his dark robes swirling around him, the rings on his arms shining brightly in the lights of the lab. "We will take care of the child and your rival."

"No!" Ivan barked. "Quill is mine!"

"Oh, you will still be able to have your fun when we're done with him," the furry figure replied.

"Charon, don't you --"

"That's not my name, Ivan. It never was." The figure stopped at the door, then glanced back at Ivan.

"I am Finitivus."


	4. Chapter 4

"...and that's pretty much it."

Khrista looked around the room as soon as she had finished speaking, trying to gauge the expressions of the small number of Mobians in the room. The entire group -- Mobians from the night before -- looked like they were only just starting to reach adulthood (except for Sabre, Verdun's father, who was there as a representative for the echidnas of TreeShroud village). They all had mostly-guarded looks that either leaked mistrust or some humor.

All except for Quill, who was leaning against a wall and watching everything with a face that was as readable as a brick wall.

"I can see why you want to capture the two who have joined Kintobar," Sarah Tripletail finally stated coolly. She folded her gloved hands in front of her on the table, her three fox tails swishing about with minds of their own.

"It's strange."

Khrista's blue eyes turned, locking with Quill's dark green ones.

"What is?" Joshua asked from Khrista's right.

"People like you have been old wives' tales among those in my tribe. To see that travelers from other worlds do exist is...." The blue-gray hedgehog shook his head again, then turned his attention fully to the pair of humans. "So you'll help us take Ivan down."

"Yup!" Khrista gave a thumbs-up. "Whatever you guys need us to do, we'll give you a hand."

"So long as it's to the point that we _can,"_ Joshua added.

"And what can you do specifically, then?" Sarah asked.

"Support. I've recently started to experiment with using different types of clean energy -- mainly solar power. I'd be more than happy to share what I know as a result of what I've done over my few weeks at home between Cyrus' debacle and here."

"Solar?" Naomi suddenly looked interested. "Overlanders on your world use sunlight to power their technology?"

"We call ourselves humans back at home," Khrista corrected.

"But yes, we do use solar power for some of our devices," Joshua added. "I'll tell you everything I know when we're not surrounded by people who won't understand half of what we're saying."

The little rabbit nodded, grinning. "Sure! I'll be in my lab whenever you're ready to get started!"

"Now that we've got _him_ settled," Vector growled, "what about _her?_ " He motioned to Khrista. "I mean, I'm not exactly sure what exactly we could do with a kid who Cyrus knows every single weakness of!"

"If I can't help on the battlefield, I can help in the background, too," Khrista responded. "I'd got a whole lot of Mobius Prime knowledge stuck up here in my noggin, and it might do us some good."

"We'll see," Quill replied. "In the meantime, I'd like to see how good you'd be out there on he ground, where Kintobar's creations have been running rampant as of late."

"Quill are you nuts?!" Vector turned sharply in his chair to face the hedgehog. "The kid's probably even younger than Kambei is!"

"I'm sixteen, and I've seen a lot of stuff," Khrista replied, placing her hands on her hips and glaring at the crocodile.

"I'm seventeen, and I've crushed more of Kintobar's inventions than you have," the black hedgehog in the room suddenly spoke up, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Can you say that you've taken on demigods that have control over time _and_ space?"

"This isn't a bragging contest," Joshua interrupted irritably. "Besides, you didn't exactly do it _alone_."

"Which is why I want to test her alone," Quill replied. He started towards the door. "Come on; it's still early afternoon. We should be able to find a few Badniks before dark."

"Why? What happens at dark?" Khrista started towards the door after Quill, following the hedgehog out onto the tree branch.

"Monsters of a different sort come out and hunt whatever Badniks don't make it back to their little hidey holes."

Something in Quill's voice and the way he grinned as he spoke set the human on edge. It seemed as though that was one of the few things that he enjoyed in this world....

Khrista shook the thought out of her head when Quill stopped and started to slide down the tree's trunk. Shifting to Flying-Type, the blue-eyed girl followed after him and landed on the ground the same time he got off the tree.

"So, you have different types of powers, then," the blue-gray hedgehog stated.

"Yeah, but I can really only use two at a time. There's eighteen different types total, but I'm still limited in what I can do."

"Good."

Khrista blinked in confusion for a moment.

"There's no way for the power to go to your head." Quill gave a nod of approval, but then his left ear twitched and the smirk that had been on his face disappeared. "Something's coming."

Khrista turned her head upon hearing this, her eyes scanning the trees around them in order to catch sight of what it was that Quill had heard. The hedgehog reached up and grabbed her shoulder with his right hand a moment later.

"Stop moving and _listen,"_ Quill hissed.

Khrista stiffened upon hearing his voice, then strained her ears. It took her a moment before she actually heard anything.

Something was scuffling through the grass at high speed.

"Something fast and...maybe small...." Khrista muttered, frowning.

Quill gave a nod. "Motobugs."

"Motobugs?" Khrista repeated in surprise. She looked down at the blue-gray hedgehog. "Kintobar has Motobugs? I knew they existed in the Prime Zone, but --"

"If they exist there, they exist here," Quill replied. "They shouldn't be tell hard for you to handle. After all, you seemed to have handled yourself pretty well with those Magmas before."

Before Khrista could respond to this, Quill suddenly disappeared from her side, leaving the human standing alone in the clearing.

Seconds later, the sound that Khrista had heard before suddenly became even louder, and five large lady bugs mounted on wheels drove in and started towards Knrista.

"I can do this," Khrista muttered under her breath. She closed her eyes for a moment, then snapped them open while her shirt shifted from sky blue to an almost-white blue. "Blizzard!"

A gust came flying in from out of nowhere, carrying on it small balls of white that turned into dangerous projectiles, piercing the shells of the Motobugs before they could even make a move towards her or the tree. As the wind dissipated, a thin layer of frost was seen on the ground, but not enough that the plants would die as a result. Seeing as most of the ice was on the Motobugs.

"There," Khrista murmured, rubbing an arm on her forehead. "That wasn't so bad."

Just then, however, a buzzing noise was heard among the trees, and the human stiffened. "Oh, no. Are those --?"

Blue and yellow-striped, bug-like robots came flying out from behind the trees -- three of them.

"BuzzBombers," Khrista muttered, sighing. Her shirt started to shift to a bright yellow, but stopped halfway when one of the bugs aimed a stinger in her direction and started to fire. "Eeh!" The blue-eyed girl quickly moved in order to avoid the energy pellets, which hit some of the frosty grass and caused the ice to melt.

"Okay, you guys are just as annoying as your video game versions," Khrista remarked. Electricity crackled from her fingers, and a ball of the yellow energy formed between her hands. "Shock Wave!"

The ball of electricity suddenly exploded outward, hitting the BuzzBombers in the joints that connected their upper bodies from their stingers. Sparks were sent flying, and the robots exploded, sending parts everywhere. Khrista hit back a piece of a head from hitting her face, then watched in bewilderment as three gold rings fell into the grass.

"Rings were powering them?" Khrista asked, blinking. "In other places, Egghead used actual animals...."

There was the sound of another explosion deeper inside the forest, causing Khrista to turn her head. A moment later, Quill came walking out from between the trees, dusting his gloves off with a calm look on his face.

The blue-gray hedgehog eyed Khrista's brand of destruction for a moment, then gave a nod. "Not bad. Eight Badniks in quick succession is a bit much for a beginner, but you did just fine."

"Yeah, well, it's good that I got to practice using my abilities." Khrista looked down at her hands for a moment, then stuck them in her pockets. "Back at home, a friend of mine decided to make a pact with me -- we weren't going to use our abilities unless it was absolutely necessary. It was easy for her to say, because her parents let her spar in the backyard with her sister. Me? Mom and Dad didn't really like that I gained super powers after I'd disappeared for about two weeks."

"They don't seem to know what they've gained, then." Quill walked over to the fallen bugs and picked up the rings that had been left in the wreckage. He slammed a foot into each of the Motobugs and fished the rings out of them as he continued, "Do you have anything that even resembles my kind on your world?"

Khrista blinked. "You mean Mobians? Or regular animals that look like what your species might be?"

"Mobians." Quill slipped the eight rings onto his left arm.

"No, then. I don't think my world has anything that resembles you guys. Or anything really weird happening...." Khrista frowned, her blue eyes darkening. "Unless I count those world-wide disasters that took place during spring break earlier this year."

"Disasters?" Quill's left ear twitched.

"Yeah. These weird earthquakes happened some time ago, and then all these storms suddenly popped up. Electromagnetic shockwaves taking out power, snow storms in the tropics...and as quickly as they hit, they disappeared. The news guys said it had something to do with a planet alignment, but my friend's parents seemed to think that it was something else....." Khrista shook her head. "I don't know what to think about it."

Quill's green eyes darkened as he frowned. "It seems that there are connections between your world and ours. What you described sounds like the end of the Giant's War."

Khrista looked surprised. "Really? Well, that's weird. I wonder what caused the storms in the first place...."

A low _boom_ suddenly echoed through the forest, causing Khrista to stiffen. Quill looked in the direction of the noise, eyes narrowing into a dangerous glare.

"What was _that?"_ Khrista asked, looking around as she tried to find the source.

"It must be the robot trouble that Sabre told me about," Quill muttered, getting a look of confusion from the human.

The echoing _booms_ started to become gradually louder, causing the ground to shake underneath their feet.

"I had been hoping to get through at least _one_ day without having to use my speed," the blue-gray hedgehog continued.

Khrista looked at Quill in surprise. "What do you mean? You're kinda _known_ for it in other dimensions."

Quill grunted. "Not here." He pulled at his right glove, revealing a flash of bright blue crystal...but in the sunlight of afternoon, the color almost looked like it was a _cobalt._

Khrista's blue eyes widened, but before she could say anything, the ground _really_ shook, and the human could hear trees groaning and snapping as the whatever-it-was started towards them.

"Tell me, Khrista," Quill suddenly spoke up. "Do my alternate selves rely on chaotic powers for their speed ability?"

"Uh...not that I'm aware of. I mean, they're all kinda born with it."

The trees in front of the pair parted, and a giant red and yellow, egg-shaped figure suddenly stepped into view.

Khrista took half a step back to steady herself and gritted ever teeth. "That's definitely an Eggman robot if I've ever seen one."

"The design isn't one of Kintobar's," Quill noted thoughtfully. "The people who came here most likely brought it with them."

The giant, egg-shaped robot stopped and brought its left arm forward, and the cannon that was mounted there started to charge up.

"Oh no he won't," Khrista growled. Her shirt shifted to a bright, angry orange, and she brought her hands together, palms facing the robot's cannon. Blue energy started to gather there, and it condensed into a ball. "Aura Sphere!"

Khrista's attack was fired at the same time that the cannon did. The two energy-based attacks hit each other, causing an explosion of smoke.

"Thanks for the distraction!"

Khrista looked over in surprise when she heard the exclamation, her eyes widening in surprise when she saw Quill -- now surrounded by a cobalt aura -- suddenly dash out of sight. A moment later, there came the sound of metal being wrenched, and something fell. When the smoke had completely cleared, the human saw why.

Quill had managed to saw completely through the elbow joint of the robot's left arm.

"Spin Dash," Khrista murmured.

"Hey, don't space out! Let's take this thing down together!"

Khrista shook her head, getting rid of the thoughts that quickly plagued her mind with what else Quill could do. "Right! Is there anywhere you what me to aim for?"

"See if you can ding it up a little in the main body; I'll take off its limbs!" The cobalt blur moved past Khrista and made another pass at the egg-shaped robot.

Khrista gave a nod. "Got it." Her shirt started to shift to a royal blue-purple color, but stopped halfway, making a swirl with the orange. Then she brought a fists back and charged forward, her arms becoming covered in swirling, bluish energy. "Dragon Claw!"

Khrista threw her arms in front of her and slammed her open palms into the metal, dragging fingers enforced with draconic energy down the robot's armored chassis. There came the sound of metal becoming warped, and the human had to pull herself back so that she could avoid a swinging right arm...which Quill promptly cut off on his way up from the legs.

The egg-bot collapsed onto its base, rolling around for a moment before settling in an upright position. Large dents in the form of claw marks took up most of the robot's front.

Quill landed next to Khrista and let out a whistle. "Not bad. Think you can do it again and break through the armor?"

"Do it again? Yeah, definitely. Break the armor? Maybe." Khrista got into a crouch of sorts before dashing forward, her hands becoming once again covered in the draconic energy. "Dragon--"

The egg started to try and hop out of her path, but Khrista quickly changed direction and brought her hands in front of her.

"--Pulse!"

A beam of concentrated draconic energy was blasted from Khrista's hands and hit the dented area of the egg's armor. When the attack petered out, the scratched dents had only become one large dent in the center of the egg's front.

"That'll work." Quill suddenly took off and curled into a ball mid-air, slamming into the large dent that Khrista had managed to make. He tore through the armor, then went flying out the other side seconds before the egg-bot exploded, sending embers and smoke everywhere.

"Uh oh." Khrista's shirt shifted to a deep blue that wasn't quite as purple. Water started to appear in her hands -- almost out of nowhere. "Water Pulse!"

A blast of water came out and hit the ground, rolling over the embers before they could do any damage to the grass or reach the trees. About half a minute later, the smoke cleared, and Khrista was able to see where exactly Quill was.

However, she didn't exactly expect to see him with someone else...or a specific someone else, for that matter.

The blue-eyed girl stiffened when she saw the white and black echidna wearing old robes walk around the fallen robot with Quill...and the red, crystal ring that the blue-gray hedgehog was carrying.

"Finitivus," Khrista murmured, startled.

The white and black echidna turned his pure, black eyes towards Khrista, the strange, golden rings that were there containing their own version of madness.

"Ah, hello, Khrista," the echidna purred.

Khrista paled. "H-how do you know my name?!"

"You mean you don't recognize Cyrus' top scientist?"

Quill looked at the albino echidna in shock. "What?"

"Charon!" Khrista yelped. "But how?"

"You were right the first time you spoke," the echidna corrected, holding up a gloved hand. "My name has always been Finitivus, whether I have been trapped in human form or not. As for how...perhaps you should find your friend White and ask her what she knows."

Khrista's blue eyes widened, and she settled into a fighting stance, her blue shirt shifting to gold. Instantly, she found Joshua's mind and latched on.

 _"Warning! Warning! Charon is the crazy echidna known as Finitivus!"_ she manually called out.

 _"And you know this_ how _?"_ came the response.

_"I'm staring right at him!"_

"Overlander...." Quill growled, turning to look at the echidna. "I'd thought that there was something wrong about you."

Finitivus laughed. "My dear friend, there is more about me than even you could understand." He took a ring off his wrist and tossed it out into the air, causing it to increase in size and a blackness to appear with in. "We will meet again soon, Quill, Khrista. That I can guarantee."

Before either the human or the hedgehog could move, the albino echidna disappeared into the ring, which promptly shrank and winked out of sight.

Quill and Khrista looked at each other, the human looking somewhat panicked.

"This...shouldn't be possible," Khrista stammered. "Charon's a human, not...not an echidna." She swallowed.

"I wouldn't put it past Kintobar to pull a stunt like this," Quill stated grimly. "And yet...to have him turn an organic into an organic isn't like him."

"...And into _that_ Mobian of all things," Khrista muttered. "Finitivus is _insane_ \-- literally. In the Prime Zone, he's known for going off on his own ambitions against his own kind -- he even forced Enerjak to surface in a close friend of Sonic's. The fact alone that he exists...and that he was _Charon,_ of all things...."

"That name he mentioned. White." Quill frowned. "Who is she?"

"She's...a neighbor," Khrista replied carefully. "She's also said that she's a World Jumper, which makes sense considering that she was our ticket home after Cyrus dragged us to his world. She's been to his world before, but I didn't think that she ended up running into anything beyond what I already knew...." She reached behind and scratched the back of her head, fingers digging in under her brown hair and into the base of her scalp. "Maybe Joshua knows something about this."

"What would your cousin know?" Quill raised an eyebrow.

"I don't know. But he usually tends to surprise me with some sort of random tidbit of info."

"Hmmm...." Quill looked up at the sky. "We may as well head back up into TreeShroud. The creatures of the forest are going to start coming out soon." He started back towards the trunk of the tree; Khrista followed after him as her shirt shifted to sky blue.


	5. Chapter 5

"You don't know anything about the connection between Finitivus and Charon?!"

"Isn't that what I just said?" Joshua gave his cousin an irritated glance before returning his attention to the device he had been inspecting. "Despite what you may think, I don't actually _know_ everything."

Khrista made a huffing noise and crossed her arms over her chest. "Well, then how did you know everything that was going on in the tower? You couldn't have tagged every single Galactic grunt with a listening device."

"...there's more to me than even you could know." Joshua placed the device back down on the table, then grabbed a nearby rag and wiped off his hands before glancing back at Khrista. His hazel, green speckled eyes carried a guarded look. "There are a few things that I can guess about the situation, though, if it helps."

His blue-eyed cousin gave a nod.

"I won't tell you here, because they're only assumptions. If you can wait until we get back to the hut, then I'll tell you what I know."

Khrista's face scrunched up in annoyance, and she let out a sigh. "All right." Her gaze moved down to the device Joshua had out down. "So, what are you working on?"

"If I'm going to be able to help out in the field, I'm going to need something to defend myself with." Joshua dropped the rag on top of the device, which Khrista now realized looked a lot like one of those sci-fi guns from the old cartoons they had watched when they were kids. "Naomi and White Fang were helpful enough in giving me a stun gun they had managed to scavenge from some of the Badniks that are wandering around here, but it's in bad shape. I'm reworking the fuel cells for better efficiency and seeing about upping the voltage a little so that it can at least knock down some of the robots that are around here."

"Smart," Khrista noted. "Come on; the sun's really starting to go down out there. We'd better get back before we accidentally stumble off the tree and run into some of those monsters Quill mentioned."

The two stepped out of a hut with metal sheets reinforcing the walls; only the little rabbit within actually looked up to watch them go. The white bat, on the other hand, kept her welding mask on as sparks flew from her workspace.

"So, these...monsters," Joshua stated carefully as they went. "They only come out at night?"

"That's what he told me," Khrista confirmed. "They seem to dislike the Badniks enough to make mincemeat out of them every night, but he didn't tell me what exactly they _were_. All I got after Quill mentioned them was a grin that made me think of Knuckles when he knows something that no one else does."

"White Fang mentioned something about that," Joshua remarked. "She said that they used to be regular Mobians, but they were affected by some sort of negative energy a long time ago. It turned them into monstrous creatures, but let them keep their intelligence. They've had a bit of a shaky partnership with the regular Mobians, but nobody's really worried about it so long as they keep their end of their bargain -- stay above ground between when the sun sets and when it rises."

"Huh. So the change was permanent?"

"Sounds like it."

The cousins soon reached the hut that they were being allowed to live in for a short time. They slipped inside, only to find that the echidna guide from that morning was nowhere to be seen. Instead, there was a note on the table that said he was off doing regular duties for the Guerrilla Union and wouldn't be back until morning.

"Well, guess everybody in town does their part for this group," Khrista remarked. She grabbed an apple from the bowl on the table and bit into it. "This'll be as good a dinner as anything, I guess. So, what do you know?"

"It's not what I know, it's what I'm guessing," Joshua replied patiently. He grabbed a chair and sat down, Khrista following suit. "Some of my theories could be facts, though."

Khrista took another bite of her fruit and looked at her cousin expectantly.

"First off, there's the entire situation at home and on the Pokemon World. I remember hearing something about a game contract between Nintendo and SEGA a couple days after we got back. Not long after that, a whole bunch of leaked pictures were leaked out, and each one looked like they took place in Sinnoh, but the main difference was in what the Trainer looked like."

"What do you mean?"

"She looked like Maria."

Khrista blinked in surprise. "Really?"

"Yeah. And what was even stranger was that it looked like she was running into Mobians in specific sections of the region. Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles were in the Canalave Library, for instance."

"What does that mean, though?" Khrista frowned as she mulled over Joshua's statement. "I mean, SEGA and Nintendo have been rivals for years. If Sonic and Pokemon came together, then maybe something's come up."

"I think something happened during the time that Maria was gone over Spring Break. She was the one who got on Cyrus' nerves, remember?"

"Well, yeah, but they never said anything about _Mobians_ being her allies."

"Maybe they didn't want to. Think about it -- if Sonic was there, what might he have been looking for in order to get back home?"

"Um...Oh, right! The Chaos Emeralds!"

"Exactly. And, if anything, Sonic might have gone Super with them before they went back. Imagine what sort of chaos _that_ would have caused on top of Mt. Coronet."

Khrista nodded. "Yeah. Especially with Dialga and Palkia up there under the Red Chain's control, too." A frown came over her face. "That doesn't explain Charon, though. I mean, how is it that _he_ was ever Finitivus before we got here?"

"That blows the going home theory nearly out of the water."

"Nearly? I would think that it sends it sky high!"

"I say nearly because we don't know the reason as to why Sonic and his allies were there in the first place," Joshua stated seriously. "Like Finitivus said, Maria might know, but we can't exactly try and contact her right now, considering that she left before we did."

"Yeah, that's right...." Khrista frowned as she bit into her apple, then looked at it in surprise upon finding that she had already eaten it down to its core. Placing it on the table, she continued, "What about your other theories? Maybe we can figure out something from there."

"I don't know...a lot of things are still up in the air...."

"That's why they're theories, isn't it?" Khrista deadpanned.

"True." Joshua cleared his throat, then launched into his next theory. "There's something about these Chaos Rings that has me intrigued. When you guys came back up here, Quill gave Verdun some sort of red ring, right?"

"Yeah. He'd gotten it from Finitivus for some reason." Khrista's blue eyes shone with concern. "It kind of makes me wonder what that old echidna's got up his sleeve. I asked Sabre and Verdun to make sure that it wasn't cursed by him before they tried to use it or anything."

"Smart. But, from what it sounds like, I doubt that Finitivus has managed to do anything to the Ring." Joshua settled back and folded his arms across his chest. "These Rings carry their own kind of curse that they've had to live with for years."

"They're already cursed?" Khrista repeated in surprise. "How do you know?"

"I ended up running into Venice and she told me about it. Apparently, the Rings were made in such a way that only certain lines of certain species are capable of using them safely, or else they end up facing some rather nasty consequences." Joshua paused. "Quill's the leader of a tribe of hedgehogs, right?"

"Yeah.... What's that got to do with this, though?"

"He's probably the only one living right now who can use that ring of his because of his family line, unless he gets married and has a couple kids to pass on the legacy."

Khrista's eyes widened as soon as she heard this. "Oh! So only his line can use the cobalt Ring, then?"

"Exactly. And he gave the red Ring to Verdun and Sabre -- most likely because of their own ties."

Khrista nodded. "That makes a lot of sense. But then there's the question as to who the other Rings work with -- and what their colors are, too. I'd guess that they match the colors of the actual Chaos Emeralds, if anything."

"It seems that anything is possible around here. We can worry about that later, though, if we have to. I doubt that the Rings are really at the forefront of the others' minds right now."

"If they'll ever end up moving up to the forefront." Khrista picked the seeds out of her apple core and placed them in her pocket with the others. "I mean, Cyrus and Char -- I mean, Finitivus -- are really the main troublemakers around here right now, next to this Kintobar guy. I haven't really seen the Mobians move into all that much action against them yet, so maybe there's a lull in the fighting right now on both sides or something."

"With those two here, I severely doubt it." Joshua's hazel, green-speckled eyes hardened. "The Mobians here have been at their war for ten years, now, and if anything, they may be preparing for a major push against Kintobar in order to keep him away from this forest and the rest of the environment. I wouldn't be surprised if there are other groups out there fighting off some of Kintobar's attention right this second."

"Like in the comics," Khrista agreed with a slightly sad expression. "I really wish we could do more for them than just grabbing Cyrus and Finitivus and getting them off their world. There's got to be something we can do extra to help give hem the final push to win the war."

Joshua gained a strange gleam in his eyes. "Maybe I can help with that from the sidelines. I mean, I'm certainly not as fit for fighting with my hands as you are, so helping with Naomi's and White Fang's inventions may give them the push they need."

"You look like you already have some ideas in mind," Khrista noted dryly.

"They still need some work, but it's a start." Joshua got up from his chair. "I'm going to sleep on some of them tonight and see if I can replicate he prototypes I've already got at home."

Khrista looked at her cousin in surprise. "First telepathy, now inventing stuff on the fly? Joshua, what happened to you when we were kidnapped by Cyrus? You sound like some sort of version of...of Gear, or something!"

"Maybe I am," Joshua replied with a bold smirk. He turned and started down the hall towards his bedroom. "Night."

"Yeah...night."

After Joshua had left the room, Khrista remained sitting in her seat for a little while longer, considering what she knew so far and what was going on with her cousin.

"I always knew you liked to tinker with things, but I didn't think that you'd go _this_ far with it," Khrista muttered after a minute. "Keeping secrets, though, had never been new with you." The teenager let out a yawn, causing her to blink in surprise. "Huh. I guess I used up more energy today than I thought." She got up from her seat, then walked to her own room and disappeared under the covers without bothering to remove her shoes. As she started to drift off, her shirt shimmered slightly, as though Khrista was about to change Types, but then it reverted to the default, dull red and the yellow and white sphere.

**Dream Break -- Joshua**

"Are you serious?!"

Crystalline blue eyes looked up, and the man sitting in front of Joshua gave a slight nod. "Yup."

The teen sent his fingers through his brown hair, causing it to stick up. "I never expected this -- even with my newfound gifts from Jirachi and Mewtwo. What made this ever happen?"

"I'm as stumped as you are, Joshua. Vector never explained his reasoning behind placing us in the minds of children rather than allowing us to have our own forms." The man shrugged. "Even the location of the others has eluded me."

Joshua let out a groan, then flopped down on the bed next to the man and looked up at the poster of MegaMan X above his head. "Blitzen, how many 'others' are there?"

"There are five of us altogether. So, you're going to have to look for four other people. Unless Vector decided to put the others in pairs and stick them in just two heads, but I doubt it."

"Vector...." Joshua frowned and tried to think of who this "Vector" person was that had locked Blitzen in his mind, but then he got a major headache. The bedroom started to warp, colors shifting together and creating a new room made of metal and filled from wall to wall with lab equipment.

Joshua sat up cautiously and looked around, his headache still throbbing. Upon catching sight of a tall, glass cylinder -- and a figure hidden inside it -- the teenager stiffened.

A low hum started to come from the machines in the room, quickly rising to a high whine. At the same time, the glass cylinder suddenly emitted a blast of light, blocking the figure from view.

At the same time, Joshua felt his heart suddenly wrench and his entire body grow cold.

The cold feeling and the lab-like room disappeared in an instant, leaving Joshua gasping for breath and gripping his chest.

Blitzen's crystalline eyes were wide. "This is the fifth time that's happened this week," he noted. "This isn't good."

"This is fate," Joshua replied. He took a few deep breaths in order to calm himself, but his heartbeat was still going at 90 miles an hour. "Before, it looked like my lab. Now, it's someone else's."

Blitzen shuddered. "I don't like this. You don't know what's going to happen afterwards."

"I'm not worried."

_"What?!"_

"At the end of the vision, someone came into the room. The only thing I caught sight of was a flash of red and orange, and a blaze of fire." Joshua gave a wry smile. "Everything's going to turn out all right. You'll see."

**Dream Break -- Khrista**

Khrista opened her eyes, only to find herself staring at the crystalline blue orbs of an older woman somewhere between her twenties and thirties. The blue-eyed teen let out a yelp and jumped back.

"A-Arsenal!" Khrista identified, surprised. "What are you doing here? Are you going to teach me something about my abilities?"

The blond-haired woman shook her head. "No, no lesson about you today. I'm here to warn you about something that's going on here on this world."

Khrista blinked in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"There's a lot going on here already without our being here, and something tells me that there's more to this world's past than just rumors about some sort of Giant's War and a storm similar to the one that hit your world."

"My world? Isn't it yours, too?" Khrista argued, frowning.

"No."

The serious tone that Arsenal used left Khrista taken aback. "What?"

"There's a lot of events that are revolving around us that allowed us to meet this way when we wouldn't have otherwise," Arsenal replied, spreading her arms wide. Khrista noticed that her gray jacket -- as well as the single red stripe and the single yellow stripe -- looked almost...metallic, somehow. "But I didn't come to talk about that. I came to suggest that you be careful as to what you do and what goes on here. This 'Finitivus'...he may have something going on here."

"I know. I read the comics."

"I don't mean from just your previous knowledge of just the echidna. His speech patterns show that he was the Galactic scientist Charon. His transformation also makes me wonder what exactly may have happened to Cyrus."

Khrista blinked for a moment, then her eyes widened. "You don't think he was turned into a Mobian, do you?"

"It could be. Then again, I don't know if he would be interested in becoming the very thing that Ivan Kintobar despises. Consider what the scientist is known for."

Khrista frowned as she considered Arsenal's words. "Kintobar's an Eggman, and people like that are known for building robots. Cyrus...he was one of those perfection maniacs...but how do those two connect?"

"It'll come to you," Arsenal responded coolly.

"You mean you're not going to tell me?!" Khrista glared at the woman.

"I don't work that way, Khrista. Keep your eyes and ears open -- you'll find your answer soon enough."

Before Khrista could respond to this, Arsenal faded from sight, leaving Khrista standing alone.


	6. Chapter 6

Khrista woke up he next morning feeling very bewildered. First, she'd been thrown into a completely different version of Mobius in which a lot of what she had known had been turned on its head. Now, Arsenal -- a voice in Khrista's head -- had admitted that she didn't belong there, and that had the teen worried.

"What is Arsenal doing in my head?" Khrista muttered as she lay in bed. "If she doesn't belong there, then --"

The door of Khrista's bedroom was suddenly thrown open, causing the human to look over in that direction.

Khrista's blue eyes blinked in confusion. "Joshua? What happened to you?"

Her cousin's hazel eyes were wide enough that Knrista thought she could see every single green speck in them. A large grin was also on his face.

"Sabre said that he and Sarah are giving the go-ahead for an attack tomorrow," Joshua explained. "I figured you'd want to know."

Khrista sat upright in bed instantly. "Really? We're going to go after Kintobar?"

"Not _directly_ \-- it's just a base that's located at the edge of Giant Forest. We might find a clue there that points to where Cyrus and Finitivus are." Joshua stepped into the bedroom as Khrista stepped out of bed. "They're going through final preparations now and asked that we stay in TreeShroud all day."

"What makes them think we'll leave?" Khrista responded, frowning. "We're here to help, not stay for a couple days and bail."

Joshua shrugged. "It may have something to do with their distrust of anyone who looks like Overlanders. I'm going over to the mechanical lab to work with Naomi and White Fang -- I was planning on doing that, anyway."

Khrista nodded. "Yeah, you do that." A frown came over her face. "What about me, though? I mean, yesterday I was clobbering Badniks. Today...."

"Maybe you should find Sabre and ask him," Joshua suggested. "Just helping move things around town might be more than enough to keep you busy."

Khrista nodded in agreement, then reached down and grabbed her backpack from the foot of the bed and threw it over one shoulder. "Okay, then. Let's go."

The cousins left the hut and started down the branch towards the main hub of the tree-based collection of huts. Green echidnas moved past the humans, the occasional rabbit or other species of Mobian mixed in. The crowd was moving in all directions, so Knrista and Joshua were able to find a "current" of Mobians that let them go where they needed to. Within minutes, they had reached the metal-lined hut Joshua had been in the night before. Surprisingly, Sabre and Verdun were standing at the entrance, where Naomi was conversing animatedly with the two echidna.

"Good morning!" Khrista called out as she and Joshua approached the trio.

The three Mobians looked in their direction, and Naomi gave a wave.

"Good morning Miss K, Mr. J!" Naomi greeted.

"Yes, good morning," Sabre said gruffly. "I suppose you two know about what is going to take place tomorrow, then?"

Joshua nodded. "I was awake for the announcement, then went back and told my cousin."

"Then you know that you're not to be allowed out of the village."

"Yeah, he told me that, too," Khrista replied with a sigh. "Since I can't go out and smash Badniks, is there anything that I can do to help around town? I don't exactly want to die of boredom, and it'll help finish off any chores you guys might have sooner."

"There is something that you can do," Sabre replied. He clapped a gloved hand on Verdun's shoulder. "Stay with my son."

"Father, what are you --"

"You don't have full control of the Ring yet," Sabre stated irritably.

Khrista blinked, then frowned slightly as she looked over Verdun's form for a moment. "I wonder...."

Her shirt shifted to bright orange, then swirled with gold. As though she had flipped a switch, Verdun suddenly flared up with a bright red aura.

Khrista blinked in surprise. "I guess my Aura Sight is getting stronger," she noted. "You're completely immersed in a bright red aura."

Verdun's golden eyes widened, and he looked down at his right wrist; Khrista caught sight of a flash of red crystal underneath his black glove. "How is this possible?"

"My guess is that you have to learn how to dampen it," Khrista remarked with a shrug. "I'm not really someone you should talk to about it, though -- Quill would probably be better."

"Except that Quill has been smashing Badniks since the sun rose," Sabre replied. "He came to me and told me the location of the base, then left to scour the Forest."

Khrista blinked in confusion while Joshua looked out towards the trees that surrounded the one they were standing on.

"How did Quill know where the base was?" Khrista asked, frowning.

The two echidnas exchanged glances, and said nothing for a few moments.

"What Quill does is his own business," Sabre finally stated. "He has never informed any of us as to what he does on his own."

Joshua gave a nod. "We won't pry," he promised.

"Good." Sabre looked over at Naomi. "I understand that the two of you are going to be working together in order to use Joshua's knowledge."

The rabbit gave a nod and a smile. "Yup!" She turned her attention to Joshua and motioned the teen inside, then turned and disappeared into the hut. Joshua, after giving his cousin a nod, followed after her.

"OK...so you just want me to follow Verdun around?" Khrista asked, looking between the two echidnas.

Sabre gave a nod, while Verdun sent a glare in the direction of the older echidna; the red aura flared up as a result of Verdun's glare. "Make sure that he keeps the Ring under control, and assist him in his daily duties."

"Sure." Khrista gave a nod.

Verdun snorted. "I don't need a babysitter."

"No," Sabre replied. "You need someone to monitor your use age of Chaos energy. Keep it under control, or else it will take control of _you_."

Verdun nodded, then turned and started to walk along the branch, the red aura flaring up and dying down seconds later. Khrista promptly jogged after the green echidna.

"Don't expect me to be able to get control of it right away," Verdun muttered.

"I'm not," Khrista replied. "I'm thinking that you're going to end up meditating or something in order to get it down."

"Meditating?" Verdun gave the human a strange look. "What do you think I am? A monk?"

"You don't have to be a monk in order to meditate," Khrista responded somewhat sourly. "Some people actually do it in order to improve their concentration during a fight."

Verdun glanced over at Khrista with an uncertain look. "Well, I'm not going to be able to try it out until later. I have something else to do first."

"All right, then. Lead the way."

Khrista followed Verdun from tree branch to tree branch, the human smiling in greeting to the Mobians who happened to be standing nearby. Most simply stared back or ignored her entirely, but one or two did smile or nod back. Eventually, however, the Mobian numbers started to dwindle he deeper Verdun led Khrista into the tree. Even the number of huts decreased.

"Where are we going?" Khrista asked, looking around.

"You'll see," Verdun replied, smirking. He turned his attention to something in front of them, which happened to be at the end of a dead end. "We're here."

Khrista moved her blue-eyed gaze towards the end of the branch, then frowned. "This looks pretty run-down." She motioned to a dilapidated hut that sat at an angle in front of them.

"It may look like that now, but I've been working on rebuilding it."

Khrista looked down at the echidna in surprise. "Does someone live there?"

"You could say that." Verdun cupped his hands around his mouth and called out, "Hey, Rosie!"

In he doorway of the tilted, dark hut, something moved. Moments later, a mass of red dashed out of the hut and rammed into Verdun, causing him to stumble back a few steps.

"Hey, Verdun!" came a girl's voice from under a giant red cloak.

Khrista blinked in confusion upon seeing that the cloak was large enough to envelop the echidna as well as whoever happened to be wearing it. But then she caught sight of a flash of silver metal underneath, and stiffened a little.

_The voice sounds organic, but...._

_*Sounds are different from sight, but it is a good observation all the same*_

_Wha..Arsenal?!_

Verdun slipped out from under the cloak. "Sorry I haven't gotten down here sooner."

"It's okay -- I've been hearing about what's going on." The figure under the cloak shifted, then stiffened when she caught sight of Khrista. "Verdun? Who's this?"

"Khrista, one of the two humans who came here from another world," Verdun explained. His golden eyes moved over to Khrista for a moment. "Khrista, this is Rosie, a refugee."

Khrista blinked in surprise. "A refugee? From what?"

"From my own people." A hand -- a human hand, but with four fingers -- reached up out of the darkness under the cloak and threw the hood back. "And since Verdun said 'human' instead of 'Overlander', I'm guessing that your kind are different from my own."

Khrista's blue eyes widened when she found herself looking into a bright green eye...and a robotic eye that was also glowing green. All the way down Rosie's form -- even under the white T-shirt and blue jeans-shorts -- her right half was gunmetal-gray from metal, and the other was a deep tan from organic skin being in the sun.

"H-how did--" Khrista blinked in surprise as she took in Rosie's appearance. "Was this the Robotosizer's doing?"

"No." Rosie used her organic hand to push a lock of black hair out of her face. "At least, not in the way you probably think -- the way Ivan uses it. We had to use the technology in order to survive our own world."

"You were that bad off with pollution?" Khrista frowned. "Didn't you guys try to find cleaner energy?"

"Some of us did, but when our world's leaders finally took notice, it was too late -- the world's air was too toxic for even cyborgs to breathe." Rosie closed her organic eye and let out a sigh. "I ran as soon as I got here because I'd heard that they were planning on doing to this world what had been done to ours."

"Well, _that_ isn't good." Khrista frowned. "Have they started building skyscrapers and power plants anywhere?"

"On the outskirts of Giant Forest."

Verdun's red aura flared up, and he gritted his teeth in anger. "They are destroying our home! We can't stand for this!"

"And it will be taken care of," Khrista responded. "We can't do everything at once, though, or else who knows what's going to happen." She turned her attention to the dilapidated building behind Rosie. "So, what needs to be done in order to make that safe to live in?"

Rosie jumped a little at the change in subject, and the red aura around Verdun flashed a little.

"Are you avoiding the subject on purpose?" Verdun asked, golden eyes darkening.

"In a way. If it's getting on your nerves, try not to think about it for a while, then come back with a clear head." Khrista started towards the hut, adding, "You guys are going to have to tell me what I need to do in order to help you guys our, because I don't know the first thing about house building."

Rosie and Verdun looked at each other, then followed quickly after the human.

**Time Break**

Khrieta let out a sigh of relief as she wiped the swat off her forehead with an overhanging leaf. "There! That should do it on my end."

Verdun looked up from a wall that he was standing in front of, hammering what looked like wooden nails into holes in the wood planks. His golden eyes were shining with a strange look somewhere between humor and delight. "You know, for a human who doesn't know what she's doing, you seem to be doing all right."

Khrista looked down from the roof at the green echidna, noticing that the red aura around him was practically gone. "It kind of helps that I can use Telekinesis to get some extra arms," she stated, grinning.

Rosie glanced up and grabbed a branch that had been floating above her head, then forced it into an opening that was in the roof of the hut. The strange, blue glow that had been around it a moment ago quickly faded. "Your strange abilities certainly do come in handy."

"Thanks!" Khrista smiled at the Overlander cyborg, doing her best not to look at all uneasy at the other's appearance. "I'm still trying to learn about how far I can go with them, though, so sometimes I'll hold back a little to make sure I won't burn myself out."

"Maybe Verdun should be taking lessons from you."

Khrista froze in her position, legs dangling over the edge of the roof. Her eyes were glued on the figure standing on the branch, arms crossed over his chest.

Verdun's red aura suddenly flared up. "Quill! What are you doing here?"

"Come on -- I almost had his aura down to nothing!" Khrista complained. She dropped down onto a tree branch and wobbled a bit when the wood bent underneath her.

Verdun turned at looked at the human in surprise. "What?"

"I noticed that the aura from the Ring was going down when you were working," Khrista explained as she moved onto a more sturdy section of the branch. Looking at the echidna, she added, "It must've cleared your head at least a _little_ bit to work with your hands."

The blue-gray hedgehog walked over, a curious look on his face. "You can see Chaos Energy?"

"I guess -- but only when it's in use, like when we took down the egg-bot yesterday." Khrista rubbed the back of her head. "In theory, I _should_ be able to see other people's life forces, as well, but I haven't really used my Aura Sight enough to be considered an expert."

"Sheesh, you're powerful!" Rosie exclaimed from the roof.

"Only because of the circumstances," Khrista replied, glancing back.

Quill glanced up, and his green eyes narrowed. "Who's up there?" His voice carried suspicious tones that sent chills up and down Khrista's spine.

"I'm just a visitor," Rosie called back. She quickly slipped the red hood over her head and looked down over the edge of the roof at Quill. "I'm staying here until it's safe for me to go back to my own people."

Quill raised an eyebrow. "And if it's never safe?"

"Then I'll stay in the deepest, darkest areas of this tree and not disturb the other inhabitants. You have my word."

Quill's green eyes darkened. "Bold words for a member of the enemy's species...but I trust you. So long as you don't cause any harm to others, you're welcome to stay here." With that, the blue-gray hedgehog turned abruptly and walked away. After a few steps, however, he paused and looked back. "Khrista is right, Verdun. Meditation and distractions will deactivate the Chaos Energy flowing through you." Quill started walking again, and moved out of sight behind a branch.

Rosie threw back her hood. "Who _was_ that?"

"Quill the hedgehog," Khrista replied.

Rosie looked at Knrista in shock. "What?! _That_ is the Speed Demon that Overlanders are terrified of?" The cyborg looked in the direction the hedgehog had gone. "He doesn't _seem_ fast...and he knew what I was, too...."

"Don't let his slow pace fool you," Verdun spoke up. "Quill is a dangerous hedgehog when he wants to be." The echidna's golden eyes moved to look at Khrista. "We may as well try that meditating thing. No one's going to bother us while we're this deep into the tree."

Khrista looked surprised at the suggestion, then gave a slight smile and a nod. "All right. Sure. Let's sit down somewhere and start working on _not_ thinking about what's going on outside of Giant Forest."

**Spacial Break**

"This wasn't a part of our deal," Ivan hissed darkly as he glared down at Finitivus. "You're rushing this too quickly for my own plans! The Dark Ore --"

"Is most likely a myth," the black and white echidna replied coolly. He waved a gloved hand carelessly, figuratively pushing away Ivan's glare. "Chaos Rings, yes -- every world needs a version of the Chaos Emeralds to run properly. But _two_ Master Rings that produce materials of varying power? My friend, I'm afraid that you may be pushing things a bit too far in that department."

"And you are pushing your own boundaries. This is _my_ world, not yours! Just because you claim to have your natural form doesn't mean that you have free reign of my materials!"

"Calm yourself; I'm not taking _everything._ Just that small facility that is so close to the border of what you have taken control of and everything connected with it."

Ivan's eyes narrowed, and he attempted to push against Cyrus in order to get at Finitivus, but the Galactic didn't let him move an inch. "If I had known just how treacherous you would be, I would have Robotosized you as soon as you got here -- and I would not have given you the chance to keep your free will."

"You don't scare me, Ivan," Finitivus replied coolly. "Before Eggman gave up on his original plans, he was much more of a determined man than you are." The echidna turned and started out of the lab. "You may be trying to tame a world so that your people and their people can live together in peace, but you can't go on attempting to appease your leaders with slowed progress and complaints of attacks. I am going to get rid of your little problem."

"Why?! If you really are a Mobian, you wouldn't do this!"

"What about Quill then, eh? Is he still a nuisance?" Finitivus paused at the door and looked back at Ivan meaningfully.

"Of course he is! He's the one who's been giving me the most trouble in attempting to create a diplomatic situation!"

"Well...perhaps I can take care of it without you even having to lift a finger." Finitivus gave a large, sinister grin to Ivan.

Ivan stopped struggling as he considered the echidna's statement. A scowl came over his face not long after. "Only him. If you manage to find others, put them in the Robotosizer and bring them to me."

Finitivus inclined his head, a knowing smirk remaining on his features. "I will see what I can do." He looked over at Cyrus. "Come. We have a girl to find."

Cyrus gave the echidna a look, then gave a nod and released Ivan before turning and starting out the door. Within a minute, the version of Eggman was standing alone in his lab.

A sinister grin came over Ivan's face. "They fell for it, and now they're going to remove the largest thorn from my side." Kintobar chuckled as he moved over to one of his machines and started typing rapidly. "Perhaps, now, that forest will go down and we can finally spread outward from that canyon."

Kintobar's typing continued to move at higher speeds, fingers turning into blurs as the entire screen started to fill with different lengths of code. "Now that I know how to translate the ancient texts, I don't need those two anymore. If I enter this, then....."

A loud beeping suddenly filled the lab, and a large grin came over Ivan's face. "Yes! That should take them out of my hair without any difficulties!"


	7. Chapter 7

Khrista woke up in the middle of the night hearing something scratching at the walls of her bedroom. And whatever it was happened to be outside the hut.

The teen stiffened, then shifted to the orange/gold swirl. "Maybe I'll be able to see what's going on out there...." She sat up completely and closed her eyes as she attempted to activate her Aura Sight. "The last time I got this to work was Stark Mountain. Maybe now...."

At first, all Khrista saw was black. But then, something started to move to her right, and the shockwaves started to cause a blue-black picture of her borrowed bedroom to form. Then, to her right, another figure started to form. It was slightly fuzzy, considering that they were on the other side of the wall, but Khrista could just make out the basic shape of the figure that was scratching against the wall...just seconds before the wall started to crack.

Khrista forced herself to tumble off the bed as she opened her eyes, watching as the wood started to splinter before completely caving in. The figure that stepped through the hole and onto the collapsed boards caused Khrista's blue eyes to widen.

"Glad to see you up," the intruder growled.

"Only because I heard you coming," Khrista growled in response. "What do you want?" At the same time, she was attempting to keep her fear down to a minimum. The only reason it was working was because the monster in front of her looked like a red version of Sonic the Werehog from the video games -- except that his shoes were completely black and this Werehog was downright _huge!_

"Sonic said that you might be able to help us out," the red Werehog growled in reply. "Get on."

Khrista blinked in surprise upon hearing the familiar name, then got to her feet and cautiously moved over and climbed onto the mutated Mobian's back. Surprisingly, not only was the Mobian large enough to take her weight, but his fur was soft and silky. It made Khrista wonder how exactly these guys cleaned themselves.

Slowly, the Werehog turned around to face the outside, then glanced back at Khrista with his bright green eyes.

"You'd better hang on," he stated gruffly.

Khrista swallowed, and quietly slipped her arms around the Werehog's neck. "Okay. What now?"

"Now, you just hang on."

The Mobian's arms suddenly went flying out, latching onto the top of a tree branch a short distance away. Then the two were flying through the air, the Werehog's arms stretching out and swinging from tree to tree while Khrista's stomach dropped and rose as though she was on a roller coaster. The teen attempted to watch for where it was that they were going, but their movements were so sudden that she just buried her face in the Mobian's quills and waited for them to stop moving.

Eventually, after what felt like somewhere between fifteen minutes and half an hour, there was a sudden jarring sensation when they landed on what Khrista hoped was the ground. When she looked up from the Werehog's quills, however, the human saw that they were standing on too of some sort of wooden platform up in a tree. It wasn't all _that_ far from the ground -- maybe fifteen feet or so -- but that wasn't really what got Khrista's attention.

It was all the mutated Mobians that were below them, varying in size, shape, and species. One in particular -- an average-sized, blue-gray Werehog with white tips to his quills, green eyes, and purple shoes with white stripes -- looked extremely familiar to Khrista.

The Werehog Khrista was sitting on let out a grunt. "Geroff."

Khrista jumped a little on hearing the voice, then slid off his furry back and looked down at the ground. When the Werehog jumped off and landed on the ground without any effort, she followed after him and landed on the ground with a grunt, bending her knees so that she was almost in a sitting position.

As Khrista was getting to her full height, the blue-gray Werehog pushed his way past a dirty pink, mutated Mobian with cat-like ears and a midnight black Werehog -- both larger than the blue-gray Mobian. All the same, neither one of them moved in anger as the blue-gray Werehog moved past them and stood in front of Khrista.

A cobalt flicker caught Khrista's eye, and she noticed the crystalline ring that the mutated Mobian was wearing on a finger. Her own eyes widened.

"Quill?" Khrista asked in surprise.

The Werehog shook his head. "Quill is what those in the sun-cycle know me as. Here, in the moon-cycle, I am Sonic." He looked to the cat-like Mobian, who bared her fangs at the human. "This is Selena." Sonic turned his head and looked at the black Werehog. "And this is Shadow, also known as Kambei to those in the day-cycle."

Shadow inclined his head so that he could look down at Khrista. His red eyes sparked with suspicion.

"Uh...hi." Khrista gave a wave as she looked around at the mutated Mobians around her. "I'm Khrista."

"We heard about you, human," Selena growled. Her cat-like ears twitched. "A human who can sense Chaos Energy and aura."

"Well...not just that...." Khrista rubbed the back of her head. "But yeah, that's one thing I can do." She looked around the group again. "Is here anything you need me for? Otherwise I'd kind of like to go back to bed before my cousin notices that I'm gone."

"I talked to your cousin," the red Werehog growled. Khrista turned around so that she could look directly at the Mobian. "He knows you're gone; he has holed himself up in that metal shelter of theirs."

"Oh. Well...okay, then...."

"As for why we summoned you here, Sonic can explain." The red Werehog motioned with a claw towards the blue-gray Werehog, and Khrista turned to look back at him.

Sonic gave a grim nod. "Finitivus' gift from a few days ago worries us. The fact alone that he has a Chaos Ring makes me think that Kintobar may have more. We need you to find them."

Khrista's blue eyes widened in surprise. "Me? Find them?" A frown came over her face. "Well, I can try, but it might be a bit difficult. I mean, I can see Chaos Energy clear as day when it's being _used_ , but I don't know about otherwise."

"Take your time, kid," Selena encouraged. "But don't use too much -- we don't have much time, if Bot-Boy has more."

"Well, I get that he'll probably use them to power some sort of weapon or something --"

"That's impossible," Sonic stated abruptly. "Only certain Mobians can use certain rings."

"Oh, right -- sorry, I was thinking about situations in other worlds." Khrista's frown deepened. "What would he use them for, then?"

"To find one of the Master Rings," Shadow stated abruptly.

It took Khrista a moment to remember what exactly the black Werehog meant. "Light and Dark...."

"Looks like she's catching on," growled a green Mobian in the crowd.

"But he's only looking for the Dark one," Khrista finished her thought aloud. "Maybe because he thinks it's more powerful?"

"That seems to be it," Selena confirmed grimly. A frown came over her face. "Are you always this good at guessing?"

"It depends on the situation, I guess. I mean, there's a lot of stuff that villains all over the universe have used for their evil schemes. It's gotten so that anything they do isn't exactly original anymore, so depending on which plan they have and how often it's used, one can easily guess at their plans." Khrista shifted her feet's position below her, then sat down in a cross-legged position. "I'll see what I can do in order to sense the Rings, but I don't want anyone to try to poke me or do anything that might break my concentration."

"You heard the kid," Sonic growled, glaring around at the group. "So don't do anything stupid."

Khrista smirked at Sonic's statement, then closed her eyes and activated her Aura Sight.

Once again, all Khrista saw at first was black. But slowly, gradually, things started to come into focus as outlines of shifting blue. The large crowd of mutated Mobians formed around Khrista before the trees did, leaving the human sitting in the center of a forest outlined completely in blue.

Seconds after the forest had formed, a cobalt flash suddenly came from one of Sonic's fingers; Khrista recognized it as the aura the Mobian was covered in when he used his speed. The flash turned into nothing more than a glittering light that appeared to be a star as other flashes came up around Khrista. Most weren't as bright as what Sonic's cobalt ring was, but she sensed a similar light somewhere behind her; without turning her head, the brown-haired teen saw a red flash up in the trees -- the red Chaos Ring, no doubt. Meaning that the other, less bright ones were probably the copies Kintobar was using to power his Badniks.

It was after the two already known Rings revealed themselves that Khrista noticed something else: a bright yellow beam that was pointing skyward directly in front of her -- a metaphorical north. This was followed by a purple beam to the northwest, an orange beam at true west, a green beam to the northeast, and a gold beam to the east. As the beams came up, they joined above Khrista's head, making a moon-like shape that was half white, half black -- a black so dark that she could clearly see it even though most of her vision was made of black.

The scene overtook Khrista's vision, and she let out a yelp and threw he eyes wide open as she fell back and hit the grass.

The mutated Mobians around them instantly started to murmur to each other join seeing Khrista's reaction, and they exchanged frowns or sent strange glances in her direction.

"I think I saw them," Khrista panted, breathing heavily from her ordeal. "At least, general directions as to where they are."

The Were-creatures looked at the blue-eyed human in surprise.

"Where?" Sonic demanded, taking a step forward as Khrista got back up into a sitting position.

"There was a bright yellow beam in that direction, then a purple one over there, a green one over there, and then orange and gold in these directions." Khrista pointed in all the directions in turn. "The energy kinda formed together and formed some sort of black-and-white moon shape above us before I was thrown out of concentration by what I saw seeing."

Most of the Mobians around her looked up at the sky, but Sonic kept his green eyes locked on Khrista's.

"Judging from where you pointed, it's likely that Kintobar has at least one," Sonic growled, getting the others' attention. "The first direction you pointed is the direction of the base the Union is going to attack tomorrow."

Khrista's eyes widened. "Uh oh. Can he find the Master Rings using just one?"

"Possibly," Selena replied. The pink Werecat gave a shrug. "Chaos Energy _is_ unpredictable."

"I know that," Khrista replied somewhat irritably. "Anyone who's seen what goes on in your alternate worlds knows that." She let out a yawn. "Man, am I tired. Using Aura Sight for that long took a lot out of me."

Sonic inclined his head, then glanced over at the red Werehog that had brought here there earlier. "Manic, take her back. And make sure Sabre knows where she's been and that she's to help in the attack tomorrow. That much is a definite."

The red Werehog gave a nod, then moved over to Khrista, who quickly scrambled up onto his back. "What about us, Sonic? How are we going to help?"

"Harass the Badniks. If we need to, I'll give the signal we agreed on. Wait in the shadows until then."

Manic gave a nod, then turned and took off into the treetops, Khrista hanging on as tightly as she dared.

"You didn't look too terrified of us," Manic noted as he swung through the trees. Khrista was amazed that she was still able to hear him, despite the speed the wind was going past her own ears. "Why is that?"

"There is a game back at home showcases a transformation like what Sonic undergoes between night and day," Khrista called back. "He's the only one that is forced to transform, though, and it doesn't last forever."

"Huh. Lucky hedgehog." Manic sounded somewhat disgruntled.

"It isn't a happy occasion when it happened to him, believe me," Khrista responded. "Mobius got split into seven pieces, and he had to put the world back together. His transformation came as a result of Eggman -- err, Kintobar -- messing with the Chaos Emeralds and reversing their polarity from good to bad for a couple seconds."

"Did he have a Dark Master Emerald?"

"They don't respond that way," Khrista responded. "It depends on the heart of the person who comes into contact with them. Sonic and his allies have pure hearts, so he uses positive energy. Anyone else with dark intents can use the reverse. The only thing the Master Emerald does is negate their energies entirely."

"Uh huh. Right."

"Believe me or not, I speak what I know," Khrista stated stubbornly.

"That's fine with you." Manic sounded bored. "We're here."

The red Werehog landed in the branch next to the collapsed wall that led into Khrista's bedroom. The human slid off the Mobian's furry back and let out a grunt as she hit the wood.

Manic gave another nod, then turned and took off into the trees with a howl into the wind. After watching him go, Khrista turned and climbed back into the hut.

Looking at her bed, crushed underneath the pile of wood, Khrista muttered under her breath, "Looks like I'm sleeping on the floor. Great."


	8. Chapter 8

Khrista let out a yawn as she looked around the group at the base of the tree. Joshua sent her a look, but said nothing other than giving her a strange look.

"I'm fine," she muttered irritably upon noticing her cousin's expression. "Just didn't get enough sleep last night, that's all."

Joshua inclined his head. "And you're still coming?"

"Well, yeah." Khrista gave a slight nod. "Aura Sight finds Chaos Energy. It's going to be of major help for this."

"Are you two done talking?" Verdun called out in the direction of the two humans. "We've got to get a move on, you know!"

"We got it," Khrista replied. She gave a nod to Joshua, then started after the green echidna and the other members of huge group: Kambei and his yellow brother, Hambei; Hannibal, in his Robin Hood-esque garb; Sarah Tripletail, wearing a dark blue jacket, boots, and gloves; Verdun, the red Ring glinting on his right wrist; and Quill, the cobalt Ring hidden under his right glove.

"How far is it?" Khrista asked, moving to keep up with the Mobians. Joshua stayed in step beside her, a grim look on his face.

"Not far," Quill called back. "It should take us a couple hours at most."

"If you don't count the Badniks," a certain orange cat grumbled.

"We can always smash them!" Hambei declared, grinning wickedly. His black-furred brother clocked him upside the back of his head.

"We don't want to get too much attention, you moron," Kambei growled.

Hambei rubbed the back of his head and scowled at Kambei, but said nothing else.

Khrista did her best to stifle a laugh, instead sticking her hands in her pockets. The red backpack she was wearing shifted. "I've got my PokeDex in my backpack. If I could bring out a friend to give us more help --"

"We have enough people here, Khrista," came Sarah's reply. The white fox's blue eyes moved to lock with the human's own blue orbs. "I appreciate the offer, but I believe we can handle this without anyone else coming from another world."

"All right...." Khrista moved her gaze around the trees and blinked in confusion for a moment when she caught sight of something that looked like a shadow moving among the upper branches. She shook her head a moment later and looked ahead down the path that the Mobians were going.

It wasn't too long before they ran into their first obstacle: a stream of Motobugs came in from out of nowhere and ran across the path.

"Hambei, Kambei!" Sarah called out.

"On it!" The yellow hedgehog gave crazy grin, then curled into a ball and Spin Dashed through the line of Motobugs. Kambei followed suit, only he swerved and forced the Motobugs to reverse and pile up.

"Go!" Kambei barked from his position. "I'll hold them back!"

"Right!" The white fox motioned the group forward, then dashed down the path. The others followed after her. Moments later, Kambei abruptly jumped away from the Motobug pile and back pedaled to a position as rear guard to the group.

Khrista practically jumped out of her shoes when she heard the explosion behind them. She turned and glanced back, but only saw a rapidly dying fire, some bits of metal, and pool of oil.

"Works every time," Kambei remarked, smirking.

Khrista looked at the black hedgehog in amazement.

"Weapons expert?" Joshua asked dryly.

"Something like that."

The group continued onward, stopping only occasionally when the Motobugs crossed their paths again. Every single time, Hambei and Kambei stopped them in their tracks and allowed the group to continue at a decently fast pace.

"I can't help but feel like there's something wrong," Khrista muttered after the hedgehog brothers had taken out the fifth train. "I mean, you'd think that, considering how Kintobar's been giving you guys the runaround with different Badniks, he'd give more of an effort to take down any organic who was moving."

"We have allies who give him more trouble," Quill spoke up abruptly. He glances over at a shadowy section below the trees and gave a slight nod. "The base is just up ahead. If we're lucky, he'll think we're just out to make a dent in his numbers and not actually do physical damage."

Khrista's blue eyes widened slightly as she recalled what the blue-gray hedgehog was referring to. _Right -- last night...._ She blinked for a moment as the rest of Quill's statement sunk in. A grin crept over her face. "All right. I can't wait to see this place as rubble."

"You haven't seen it yet," Joshua responded dryly. He adjusted the brown pack that had been thrown over his shoulder. "Besides, it could still be of some use to us."

"Doubt it."

"Sssh!" Hannibal held a finger to his lips. "If we are close, you two had better not be speaking loud enough to wake the dead. We don't want extra attention."

"All right, all right...." Khrista let out a sigh, then lowered her voice. "This base may as well be a symbol of what Kintobar means around here."

"You could say that about anything that's invaded this forest," Joshua replied. "This is different. If they gain a foothold here, then they can work their way through Kintobar's network to him."

It wasn't long before the group arrived at a fallen tree. Sarah motioned for the group to get down behind the tree, and the group did so -- Khrista and Joshua had to get down on their knees so that only their heads could peer over the thick trunk at the large, white complex that they were about to attack.

Khrista looked over the area, her blue eyes flickering as she tried to find any sort of opening that the group could take. She looked over at the others in the group. "So, what now? It looks kinda deserted for some reason...."

"They're at their least active in the mornings," Sarah replied. "We don't know why, but it seems to have something to do with whatever happens at night." She glanced over at Quill and Kambei, but neither one of them looked back in her direction.

 _Does she know?_ Khrista questioned, frowning slightly.

"All right. Do all of you know what your parts in the plan are?" Sarah looked at each member of the group in turn, each one giving a nod.

"We get in, cause as much damage as we can, see if he's got a Ring, and get out," Khrista stated.

"We can use these to keep track of each other's movements," Joshua added. He slipped the pack off his back and went digging around in it for a moment before pulling out what looked like an earpiece of some sort. "I charged them up yesterday, so they shouldn't lose charge while we're in there." Khrista's cousin started to hand them our among the group.

Hambei gave his earpiece a curious look, frowning. "What are these things?"

"Communicators," Joshua replied. "We can use them to let each other know of our progress." He slipped the earpiece over his left ear; Khrista mimicked him a moment later. "They run on electricity, which can be converted from solar energy. And they work -- White Fang and Naomi tested them out."

The Mobians looked at each other while Sarah gave a nod of approval.

"Not a bad idea," the blue-eyed white fox remarked. She slipped the earpiece over her own pointed ears, the others following suit. "All right. Let's go."

The group split in two and started out towards Kintobar's facility: Sarah, Hannibal, Joshua, and Verdun going in one direction, and Quill, Kambei, Hambei, and Khrista going in another.

 _::Be on your guard, Khrista::_ Joshua warned over the communicators.

"You two, cousin," Khrista muttered in reply.

Khrista's group went around to one side of the complex's fence, where a few trees still stood and cast long, dark shadows. A few figures were standing in the shade of the tree, slightly glowing eyes watching the Mobians and human as they walked towards the fence.

"I might be able to melt this," Khrista remarked, looking over the fence with a curious expression. Her shirt, which was at the default dull red, started to brighten as the yellow and white sphere on her chest started to fade from sight.

"Go ahead," Quill replied. "We're going to end up making as much noise as possible."

Khrista gave the blue-gray hedgehog a grin, then turned her attention to the fence as fire started to appear on her arms and grow in strength and heat. "Inferno!"

The blue-eyed teen threw the fire forward, resulting in a large, fiery tornado that went threw the fence and started to melt the metal that it come into contact with. The fire died not long after Khrista cut her connection to it, leaving a melted hole in the fence that anyone taller than a Mobian would have a hard time getting through if they couldn't jump and Spin Dash...or fly.

Hambei gave Khrista a look of amazement. "Whoa...." A grin spread across his face. "That is so cool!"

"That's not even my most powerful attack," Khrista replied lightly. Her shirt shifted to sky blue, then gained a swirl of gold as the teen rose up off the ground. "We don't want to stand around an gawk now, though."

Kambei nodded in agreement, his red eyes shining with an eagerness of sorts. He motioned for the others to follow him, then started for the hole. Quill. However, stopped the black hedgehog by grabbing hold of one of his head quills.

"I'm the leader of this squadron," the blue-gray hedgehog growled darkly. He then Spin Dashed through the hole -- without using the Ring, which surprised Khrista. Kambei and Hambei followed after Quill, and Khrista flew through the hole in the fence behind them.

The land around the base -- courtyard, Khrista supposed -- looked like it had been tamped flat repeatedly by what looked like tire treads, or even large feet with two toes in the front and one in the back.

"These tracks are fresh -- a half hour old, at least," Quill noted, placing a hand over one of the chicken-like footprints. "And it looks like they are all heading out into the forest."

A loud howl suddenly came from somewhere in the tall trees surrounding them, and Khrista and Hambei looked up in alarm while Kambei and Quill exchanged grim glances.

"Looks like they're going to have their paws full," Kambei noted.

"They knew we would bring our allies," Quill agreed. He turned to face a nearby wall of the building and got into what looked like an attack stance -- one foot in front of the other, fists clenched in front of him. A cobalt aura instantly came over him, and the hedgehog brought his hands in front of him, palms facing the wall. "Chaos Spear!"

A blast of cobalt Chaos Energy was sent from Quill's hands and hit the wall directly. As soon as the two came in contact with each other, there was an explosion a quick explosion of dust brought up from the ground. When the dust settled, it revealed a hole that was large enough for Khrista to walk through without hitting her head on the rubble.

"All right!" Hambei exclaimed. "Let's go, brother!"

"Right behind you," Kambei replied. The yellow and black hedgehogs dashed into the hole and disappeared from sight.

"Time to go Ring-hunting," Khrista muttered. The sky blue on her shirt was quickly replaced by the angry orange of the Fighting-Type.

"Verdun and I will take care of that," Quill replied abruptly.

"What? But what about --"

"Trust me. You go find your cousin. Something tells me you'll find the Mobian and human that you're looking for." Quill's green eyes hardened. "Go!"

Khrista's eyes widened as soon as she heard Quill's sudden bark. Then she gave a nod and ran for the hole in the wall.

"Joshua, I don't like this," Khrista remarked as she stepped inside. White walls and a gray tile floor -- how generic could this get? "This just feels too easy. Aren't Eggmen supposed to have bases _crawling_ with pesky robots? More than enough to handle intruders _and_ monsters lurking outside the fence?"

 _::This world is different from the one we know::_ Joshua replied. _::Everything is more laid-back than it is for Sonic. We haven't even seen a single SWAT-bot armed with a laser cannon, much less a message from Ivan Kintobar -- whatever he happens to look or sound like::_

"Something else must be going on."

_::Agreed. Cyrus and Finitivus are not ones to simply lay low for long::_

Khrista skidded around a corner, then came to a sudden stop. The blue-eyed teen let out a groan. "Great. A dead end." She walked forward and put her hand on the wall blocking her path. "There must be a reason for it somewhere...." The teen looked around the section of the hallway she was in, trying to find something that she could use to continue moving forward. Upon finding no visible doors, Khrista let out a growl of annoyance.

_*When in doubt, break something*_

Khrista jumped upon hearing the voice of the being trapped in her head. "Arsenal, what --"

_*It's a policy shared among those in my unit. A wall would be a good place to start*_

Khrista blinked in mild confusion then guessed at what Arsenal was getting at. "Not a bad idea." A grin came over her face, and she brought her right arm back, fist clenched. "Mega Punch!"

Khrista's fist became covered in energy, and she threw it forward and hit the wall. A loud cracking noise resounded as the wall broke slightly, cracks spreading out from where Khrista had hit.

The teen hissed through her teeth and moved her hand back, shaking out the pins-and-needles feeling that was in her knuckles. "Okay, not going to try _that_ move again. Maybe...." She looked down at her feet for a moment, then backed up a few steps and suddenly dashed forward and threw her feet into the wall. "Jump Kick!"

Khrista's feet connected with the area she had punched, and the wall gave under the force. The teen landed on the ground on the other side, then frowned.

"Stairs?" Khrista blinked as she looked down into the darkness below. The bright gold of her shirt shifted to a more bright, friendly-looking yellow. A glow started to come from her shirt, illuminating the area around her. "So this place has a basement...I wonder...."

Khrista started down the stairs, her shoes causing the metal to clink with each step. Her Flash showed dark gray metal that looked like it was covered in water and hadn't seen the light of day in _years_.

"Man, this is a sudden change," Khrista muttered, frowning. "Joshua, I found a basement level."

_::Be careful, all right? Who knows what Kintobar has down there::_

"Yeah. You be careful, too -- I haven't seen any Badniks on my end, considering there are a lot out in the woods, but they could still show up."

_::That problem should be solved shortly::_

Before Khrista could ask what her cousin meant, a loud explosion suddenly came from somewhere above the brown-haired teen. She jumped as an aftershock followed.

 _::Sorry::_ Kambei's voice came over the communication system. _::I overestimated the strength of the machines in this sector::_

 _::Well, now Kintobar_ definitely _knows we're here::_ Quill growled.

 _::That depends on if he's actually here::_ Joshua remarked.

 _::What do you mean?::_ Sarah asked.

_::Take a look around -- doesn't this place feel like it's abandoned?::_

"Especially where I am," Khrista agreed. "Do you think something's wrong?"

_::Not just "wrong" -- this entire place could be a --::_

Joshua was suddenly cut off by a loud screech that caught Khrista off guard. She quickly tore off her earpiece and found that it was the source of the noise.

"What _was_ that?" Khrista asked, rubbing her left ear. Worried that there might be ear drum damage, she muttered, "Recover." A tingling sensation went through her ears, but that soon passed.

"That was the scrambler."

Khrista stiffened upon hearing the voice in the darkness. It was extremely familiar...but also sounded a little different. Metallic, almost.

"Cyrus?" Khrista asked hesitantly.

The area the teen was standing in suddenly burst with light, forcing Khrista to stop her Flash so that she could see where she was without blinding herself.

The blue-eyed teen looked around the oval-shaped metal room, taking note of the tall, smooth walls that had no handholds whatsoever -- not even any lines at hinted at welding. Khrista made a note to try and fly up to the top later to see if there was a way to get out in that direction.

Then Khrista's gaze moved to the figure standing at the opposite end of the room, and she froze.

Cyrus was standing there wearing green and white armor that looked only slightly reminiscent of his Galactic uniform -- in fact, the yellow "G" was right there on his chest. His eyes and hair were the same cool they had always been, but there was something stiff and...almost robotic about the man that caused Khrista's heart to skip a little in fear.

"No...." Khrista's eyes widened. "You Robotosized yourself?"

"Correction: I achieved perfection." Despite how emotionless Cyrus sounded, he also looked strangely pleased with himself. "And now, you shall die."

The Galactic leader dashed forward, his left hand disappearing and becoming replaced with a sword seconds later.

 _Metal is weak to Ground,_ Khrista suddenly remembered. The yellow darkened into an early brown, and she slammed her right foot onto the ground, yelling, "Earthquake!"

**Spacial Break -- change in 3rd POV**

"--The entire place could be a trap," Joshua stated. Then he flinched as he heard something screeched, then was suddenly cut off.

 _*What was_ that _?*_ Blitzen asked in surprise.

"What was that?" Sarah asked, wincing. She rubbed her left ear with a look of annoyance.

"Interference, probably because she's reached a certain depth underground," Joshua replied. "I really should have expected that sort of feedback when I was designing these." He touched his own earpiece cautiously, as though expecting it to screech again at any moment. "We're going to have to be careful. If Khrista's out of communications range, then we probably won't be able to figure out if she's fighting anyone or not."

_::I think I've got an answer to your problem::_

"Verdun!" Sarah identified, putting her hand to her ear again. "What have you found?"

 _::We are presently located in what looks like a monitoring station::_ Hannibal was speaking, now. The orange cat, for all the calm that was in his voice, sounded somewhat strained. _::We were chasing that accursed white echidna before he disappeared into a black hole created by some sort of gold ring. We can see all of you from here -- including Khrista::_

 _::She's standing in some metal place with a blue-haired Overlander right now::_ Verdun added.

As if the green echidna had spoken the magic words, a rumble suddenly shook the building.

 _::.What was that?::_ Quill growled.

 _::Khrista just put her foot down -- literally. There are cracks all over the floor::_ Hannibal sounded amazed. _::That certainly tripped up the blue-haired man::_

"Blue hair....?" Joshua's hazel eyes widened. "Cyrus!"

_::That's him? Are you sure?::_

"I'm positive, Verdun. And if he's fighting someone --"

Quill suddenly let out a snarl. _::You! Finitivus!::_

A moment later, there was another ear-splitting shriek, and the Mobians and human simultaneously flinched, even though they were unaware of each other's reactions.

Joshua let out a groan. "Finitivus is going to do who knows _what_ to Quill. We'd better find Kintobar's lab and put it out of commission before we all get caught."

The white fox beside him gave a curt. "Right. Hannibal, keep us up to date on Khrista's and Quill's movements...."

**Spacial Break**

_::...We don't want either of them to become knocked out without our knowing. If they need help, let us know::_

"Understood," the orange cat replied with a nod. He didn't take his green eyes of the monitors in front of him for an instant.

_::Verdun, you're going to have to continue on your own. See if you can try to find Hambei and Kambei, or the Chaos Ring that Kintobar might have in the base::_

Verdun's golden eyes widened. "Go it alone? Are you _insane?"_

 _::Nothing's come up and stopped us so far::_ Joshua spoke up. The green echidna could see the human running down a hall with a certain white fox right next to him. _::If anything does become an obstacle for you, find a way around it or a way to use it::_

"All right, fine." Verdun grumbled something under his breath, and the red Ring on his right wrist flickered a little. He turned and walked out of the room filled with monitors and started down the hall, occasionally glancing about in order to see if there was anyone who might end up getting the jump on him.

However, what did happen was the least expected.

A flash of blue suddenly appeared a short distance away from the echidna, causing him to stop short and get into a fighting stance. There was something about this that didn't sit well with him....

The blue flash swirled in on itself, forming some sort of whirlpool. A dark figure started to step out of it, causing Verdun's eyes to widen in shock.

"Hi," the figure stated. "I'm Maria White."


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Told you it'd cross over with another story of mine -- this is the end of Maria's fourth adventure, Smash Worlds Tournament.

Khrista jumped back from Cyrus' blade and set off another Magnitude, causing the entire room to rumble and gain more cracks all over the place. The former human in front of her stumbled as his foot was caught in a particularly large crack in the ground -- which, surprisingly, was tamped earth instead of a metal sheet. She hadn't had much luck in taking the Galactic down, however, considering that all the earthshaking did was make him stumble so that Khrista could dodge easily.

So she switched tactics by switching her secondary Type.

"Let's see you take this!" The angry orange of the Fighting-Type became bright yellow. Electricity sparked off Khrista's arms. "Shock Wave!"

Electricity was sent flying in all directions. Most of it went into the walls and sent sparks down into the earth, but at least some of it hit Cyrus square in the chest, causing the Galactic to actually cry out in pain. When the rest of the move dissipated, Cyrus' armor sparked for a few moments while he stood paralyzed. However, the sparking soon worked its way into the ground, and seconds later, Cyrus started moving again, albeit somewhat jerkily.

"Did you really think that would be enough?" Cyrus' voice was starting to gain even more static, letting Khrista know that Cyrus wasn't exactly human anymore.

"Well, one can hope...." Khrista switched Types again. "If electricity won't work, let's see how you handle this! Aura Sphere!"

The blue ball of energy slammed into Cyrus, sending him flying backwards and into the metal wall, resulting in a hollow _bong_ that echoed throughout the room.

Khrista covered her ears in order to protect them from the loud noise. "Of course the gong echoes...." She jumped up into the air and slammed down again, setting off a second Magnitude that caused the walls to actually start warping.

Cyrus hit the floor and started to get up somewhat unsteadily. "Balance systems: damaged," he muttered. "Armor: damaged."

Khrista became a little weirded out as a result of Cyrus' muttering. _Does he have to state his status aloud like that? I can see it as plain as day._

 _*It's probably a result of this "Robotosizing" technique*_ Arsenal noted. Her voice was strangely dark for some reason.

Khrista shook her head. "Maybe. But...." She caught sight of Cyrus moving towards her, acting as though he was in a drunken stupor. "I've got to find this guy's weakness. Magnitude!"

The blue-eyed teen slammed into the ground, putting as much force as she could into the ground. The rumble that resulted caused the ground to heave and buckle more than previous. Cyrus tripped and fell flat on his face as a result.

"Hah!" Khrista grinned. "Take that!"

"Opponent does not seem to see that earth-shaking deals no damage," Cyrus muttered. He started to get to his feet. "Merely hinders."

Khrista frowned and took a step back when Cyrus got fully to his feet. "I've got to figure out this guy's weak points if I'm going to take him down and drag him back to the Pokemon World without him fighting back. Arsenal, any ideas?"

 _*The joints*_ the voice responded quickly. _*They've always been the weakest, in my experience*_

"The joints....?" Khrista gained a look of realization. "Of course!" Her shirt shifted from orange and brown to orange and gold. "All right.... Psycho Cut!"

**Spacial Break**

Joshua's footsteps stumbled a little as they ran down the corridor. "Khrista really should know that there could be negative implications to using Ground-Type attacks like this in the basement," he muttered. "She could have the entire building collapsing in on her head because of this."

"She's taking on one of your opponents; I think that warrants her some recklessness," Sarah responded.

"All the same, I'd wish that she'd be more careful."

The two turned a corner and ran down another corridor, Joshua glancing down at the Gameboy-like device in his left hand as they went. Different-colored blips were moving around on the screen in what appeared to be some sort of maze. A bright red blip was following a green one, causing the hazel-eyed teen to frown.

"Since when did _she_ get here....?" Joshua shook his head and pressed down on the red blip. "Send the package."

A beep came from the device, and two words flashed at the top of the screen for a moment: _Package Sent._

"How close are we, according to that device of yours?" Sarah asked.

Joshua glanced down at where they were: a white blip and a deep blue blip so close they were practically one. A red-highlighted square was pulsing nearby. "We're almost there. Just a little further down this way."

Joshua's words quickly proved to be true; the pair came to a stop when Sarah called out something.

"There!" The white fox pointed with a gloved hand towards a steel door without a doorknob. "This must be it."

Joshua looked down at his device, then gave a nod. "Yup. The hacked data here proves it. This is his Robotosizer lab." The teen walked forward and put his hand on the door. "Now to just figure out how to get in...." He started to grab the brown pack on his shoulder, considering which one of the devices in there -- besides the source of the communicators' wireless signal -- would be useful enough to take down a steel door without causing the roof to come down on top of them.

The sudden sound of something made of metal getting hit jolted Joshua out of his calculations. He looked up in surprise upon hearing the noise, and blinked in surprise when the steel door slid up, revealing a large lab of technology.

Joshua looked over at Sarah, who was dusting off her gloves while looking rather smugly at a destroyed panel of numbers that was in the wall. It looked like a piece of metal had fallen off -- Joshua spotted it a second later lying on the floor with a boot-shaped dent stuck in it. "What did you do?"

"White Fang has always said that technology that is malfunctioning releases electric sparks," the triple-tailed fox explained coolly. "I thought there was something wrong with the panel." She motioned to the destroyed device.

Joshua gave a nod. "Thanks. That saved us some time." He walked into the lab and pulled the pack off his back, then started to rummage through it. Metal hit metal as he searched for a specific device; minutes later, his hand came in contact with a small, cylindrical device. "Here it is." Joshua pulled out the device; it shone black and smooth in the light of the lab.

"And you're certain that will take his technology out of commission," Sarah stated, her blue eyes darkening into a frown.

"Naomi and White Fang both said that it would do something." Joshua pulled the device in half, revealing a silver plug. Upon finding a matching port on a computer console, he plugged the black device in. "Not only will this plague his machines, but it might give us some data on whatever it might be that he's planning."

A beep came from the computer, and a green bar appeared on the black monitor, a slit of bright blue on its left side.

"How long will it take?" Sarah asked.

"A while," Joshua replied. "Hopefully only five minutes. In the meantime, we can see about destroying the Robotosizer."

It was at this point that everything went wrong.

A pair of hidden panels opened up on either side of the computer Joshua and Sarah were standing in front of. Two large, clearly robotic hands came out from the blackness behind them and attempted to grab Joshua and Sarah; they succeeded on the part of the human, but the Mobian managed to dodge and dash for the door...where she paused and looked back as the robot hand started for her again.

"Get going!" Joshua yelled after her, now being held above the ground. "They probably won't be able to catch you out there!"

"But what about --"

"Go! I'll be fine!"

Sarah's blue eyes widened when she saw the hand coming for her, and she turned sharply and dashed out the door...right before the steel came down and locked the room.

Joshua attempted to fight back against the robot hand holding him, but its grip only tightened, and something snapped loudly in Joshua's chest; the boy cried out in pain. He was then dropped on some sort of circular platform, and a glass wall came down around him.

Joshua let out a groan. "I'm definitely going to get bruises from this," he muttered.

_*Uh...Joshua? You do know where you are, right?*_

The boy blinked blearily upon hearing Blitzen's voice; the cylinder was starting to steam up for some reason, and Joshua was starting to get a tingling sensation all over his body. He started to get to his feet, holding onto his lower left side -- he was certain that a rib had been cracked.

"I know where I am, Blitzen," Joshua stated as calmly as he could. However, not even he could mask emotions from a voice in his head.

_*Yeah, and now you pick a time to panic. Great--it's Shockwave's lab all over again....*_

Joshua felt like he was going in and out of consciousness now; a rumble went through the ground, but he didn't exactly take notice of it. "Help...will come. You'll...see...." The teenager slumped against the glass wall.

 _*You mean help will come too late*_ Blitzen remarked bitterly. _*This is not good...I will not be stuck in an Insecticon for the rest of my life!*_

**Spacial Break**

Hannibal was concerned. What he was seeing -- and _hearing_ \-- should not have been possible at all. First a girl wearing red and orange armor had appeared out of _nowhere_ , then he had lost all visuals in the lab room after those robot hands had appeared out of the walls, and now it looked like Khrista was starting to lose to the robot-man known as Cyrus. There was _definitely_ something wrong with this place, but the orange cat couldn't put a paw on it....

_::Hey, Hannibal!::_

The cat jumped a little upon hearing Verdun yell in his left ear. "Don't scare me like that!" He growled irritably. "What is it?"

 _::Look through those monitors in front of your nose and find me::_ The green echidna was sounding somewhat smug.

Hannibal made a huffing noise. "All right, all right." His green eyes went from monitor to monitor -- starting with the black one that had been in the lab. To his surprise, he found Verdun sanding on the monitor right next to it, directly next to some sort of cylindrically shaped container with energy beams protecting something inside.

"By the Rings!" Hannibal breathed. "Is that what I think it is?"

Verdun, who had his golden eyes on the item that was being protected, gave a nod. _::Yup. That's the Chaos Ring that we've been looking for::_

 _::You found it?!::_ Hambei let out a whoop of delight, followed by a yelp of pain. _::Ow....::_

 _::You don't need to be so loud about it::_ Kambei growled. _::Verdun, where are you?::_

_::I don't exactly know. Hannibal, do you have a map in there or something?::_

"A map?" Hannibal frowned. "What do you think I am? I can't make heads or tails of any of this stuff!" He made a wild motion to all the technology he was surrounded with. "And I doubt that my looking is going to solve anything."

Kambei let out a growl of annoyance. _::Well, isn't that just great. Come on, brother -- let's try and find the echidna before he does something stupid::_

_::Okay!::_

_::Hey, I haven't done anything stupid!::_ Verdun let out a growl of annoyance.

Hannibal shook his head at the boys' antics, a smirk playing on his face. Then a flash of bright red caught his eye on the monitors, and he looked up. His green eyes widened a moment later.

"No...impossible!" the cat murmured under his breath. He leaned so far forward that his nose was almost touching the monitor. "What is that child doing now?"

**Spacial Break**

Finitivus was starting to get on Quill's nerves. The black and white echidna would never sit still -- and when he did, he threw _black_ Chaos Energy -- an instant warning signal for negative power -- while chanting some sort of prayer than sounded like he was forcing someone to let him use their power.

The blue-gray hedgehog didn't like it one bit. There was something about Finitivus that set his quills on edge, and he wanted the feeling to _stop_ so that his world could be left alone in some sort of relative peace -- not counting Kintobar's antics.

Finitivus let out a crazed laugh as he dodged another one of Quill's Chaos Spears, an eager grin on his snout as he moved from one end of the room to another. "You're not going to be able to beat me, little hedgehog! You're not even at my level of power!" He pulled two rings off his wrists and flung them out; the two golden bands grew in size and gained a black expanse within them right before Finitivus jumped through one and came out the other, tackling Quill to the ground.

The blue-gray hedgehog let out a growl, and his green eyes flashed. "Big mistake, echidna. I don't know what it is that you've done to gain this much power, but you should know never to underestimate an opponent! Chaos Blast!"

A loud explosion suddenly rocked the room, sending Finitivus flying into a nearby wall. Quill got up from the crater he had made and casually dusted himself off, watching as the glow of the cobalt Ring dimmed to almost nothing.

"Looks like I've used up all the energy for now," the blue-gray hedgehog muttered.

"That wasn't too bad of an attack."

Quill's ear twitched, and he turned his head in order to catch sight of the person who had spoken. His green eyes widened upon catching sight of the figure.

A girl with brown hair, blue eyes, and red, orange, and gray armor walked into the room, leaving behind a makeshift entrance that looked like the outer edge had been melted. Over one shoulder was another figure wearing cobalt, lime green, and gray armor, but it didn't look like this one was conscious.

"It looks like you've knocked Finitivus out," the girl added, stopping a few steps away from the hedgehog. "I doubt he was expecting that from a speedster."

Quill's green eyes narrowed. "Who are you?"

The girl blinked for a moment, then smiled sheepishly. "I guess I haven't introduced myself, have I? My name's Maria White -- I'm one of Khrista's friends."

Quill raised an eyebrow. "White...." He glanced over at Finitivus. "He mentioned something about a child named White knowing about his transformation."

"Yeah...I know something about it." Maria walked over to the echidna and grabbed him by the dreadlocks. She lifted the black and white echidna up, getting a grown out of the Mobian. "Especially since I took out these guys the first time they tried to take over their home world." She glared at Finitivus for a moment, then gave a wry smirk and looked over at the hedgehog. "Mind keeping an eye on him for a little while? I don't want to end up making two trips in order to get two criminals to the jail that they deserve to be in."

"So, you're hunting for them, too."

Maria gained a serious expression, and she gave a nod. "Yeah. I wasn't able to get here right away, though, and it looks like two of my neighbors beat me to it." She looked like she was about to say something else, but then she flinched and held her head with her free hand, her face contorting into a look of pained annoyance.

Quill blinked for a moment. What was it that was plaguing her?

Maria let out a grunt. "Looks like Khrista's in trouble directly below us." She dropped Finitivus on the ground abruptly, getting a groan from the echidna. The blue-eyed girl ignored it, however, instead placing the other armored figure on the ground near Quill's feet before turning and walking towards the center of the room. "Down there...."

Quill blinked again, then frowned. "Are you saying that Khrista is directly below us?"

"Yup." Maria held her right hand out in front of her, pointing her fist at the floor. "And I'm going to go down there right now." ****

**Spacial Break**

"Psycho Cut!"

Khrista sent another Psychic blast of energy in Cyrus' direction, but the Galactic dodged and came at her with his sword. He made as though to cut her arm off, but Khrista moved back in order to avoid the blade. All the same, the point left a thin trail of red as it went down her right arm.

The teen hissed through her teeth. "Recover," she growled. The cut healed up along her arm, but did leave behind what looked like a scar.

"You are not going to be able to keep this up forever," Cyrus stated flatly. He pointed his sword at Khrista's face, and she started to back up, only to find herself with her back against the cold, metal wall. "Already, you are tiring."

"But that doesn't mean that I'm tired of fighting you!" Khrista snapped in reply. The sword's point was pressed into her neck, making Khrista try to move up the wall, completely forgetting to change into a different Type.

A cruel, cold, emotionless grin crept across Cyrus's face. "Die."

Before the Galactic could move, however, a loud explosion suddenly came from above their heads; a piece of metal, painted black on the bottom, fell from the black, previously invisible ceiling. A stream of light came down from above, followed quickly by a figure jumping through and stopping mid-air in what looked like a hover.

"Hey, Cyrus!" called out the figure in a familiar voice. "Found you!"

Cyrus turned around sharply while Khrista's blue eyes widened in surprise. While the trapped teen had a grin spread across her face, the Galactic started to look strangely pale, the sword at Khrista's neck starting to shake a little bit.

"No...impossible...." Cyrus breathed, his voice cracking with electrical static.

Khrista, however, was grinning from ear to ear at the girl in red, orange, and gray armor above them. "Maria!"


	10. Chapter 10

"Now, how about you step away from my neighbor and drop your sword, Goonhead?" Maria asked with a sly smile. Even from where Khrista was standing, backed against the wall of the makeshift arena, she could see that the other teen had switched out her right hand for a cannon-like weapon: the Buster, an iconic weapon among those who knew what world they came from.

The smile on Maria's face disappeared rather quickly. "Or else I'm going to blast you to pieces, starting with your legs."

Cyrus pulled away from Khrista, allowing her to breathe without being worried about having her neck run through. "Impossible. You weren't Robotosized when we last met, and Eggman --"

"Kintobor was not the one who did this to me," Maria replied abruptly. "It was done on another world to save my life remember?" She blinked for a moment, then smirked from her high height. "Oh, yeah -- you weren't there when I took everyone home, were you?"

"He definitely wasn't," Khrista agreed, starting to walk around Cyrus from the back. Her shirt shifted to sky blue and a deep, fiery red.

"Well, that explains the fact that he looks like a shaking leaf." The smirk that had crept across Maria's face disappeared, and the brown-haired, blue-eyed teen started to descend, still keeping her Buster trained on the Galactic below. "We're taking you in, Cyrus."

Upon hearing this, Cyrus took a defensive stance. "Correction: I am not going anywhere."

Maria's blue eyes widened as she touched the uneven ground, but they soon narrowed into slits. "Your wording...you didn't choose 'Robotosized' by accident."

Then, without Maria so much as _twitching_ , the Buster fired. And it seemed that Cyrus did not see it coming, because he took the attack and went flying backwards.

"I softened him up for you," Khrista grumbled, scowling.

Maria gave a smirk as her Buster retracted, then walked over to Cyrus, being especially careful around what looked like deep cracks. "Come on; the hedgehog knocked the echidna out with a Chaos Blast on the floor above. It kinda surprised me to see that a version of Sonic could be so much like a Shadow."

"There's a lot more to him than that," Khrista replied, thinking back to what she had seen the night before. Upon catching sight of the odd look she was getting from the Reploid, she shook her head. "I'll tell you later. When this entire problem is over and down with."

"Well, from the visions I got, it seems like these guys are the main problem." Maria motioned to Cyrus, who was slumped against the wall. She picked him up with a grunt and attempted to put him over one shoulder, but failed and dropped him on the ground with an echoing _clang._ The blue-eyed Reploid muttered something under her breath, then looked over at Khrista. "Mind giving me a hand?"

"Uh...sure." Khrista's shirt shifted, the fiery red becoming the bright orange of the Fighting-Type. She walked over and grabbed Cyrus' feet. "You get one half, and I get the other half?"

"All right." Maria leaned down and lifted up Cyrus' upper body by his shoulders. She then started to back up towards the hole in the ceiling, watching the ground in order to keep from tripping.

As soon as the pair reached the hole in the ceiling, Khrista looked down at Maria's red boots as soon as she heard what sounded like an engine running. Then she gave the Reploid a strange look.

Maria shrugged. "Jet boosters."

"Jet boosters?!"

"Are we going to go up or not?" Maria gave a half-smile. "I'll tell you about what happened to me later. For now, let's take care of these two goons."

Khrista would have responded were it not for the fact that Maria promptly took off into the air, forcing her to follow suit. Within minutes, they were in the room above.

Khrista took one look at where Finitivus had collapsed, and her eyes nearly bugged out of her head. "Whoa...that was from a Chaos Blast?"

"Yup." Maria and Khrista landed next to the hole and unceremoniously dropped Cyrus on the ground with another _clang._ The Reploid nodded to the blue-gray hedgehog standing nearby. "Thanks for keeping an eye on those two. Did Joshua wake up at all?"

Quill shook his head, looking down at the blue-and-green-armored heap at his feet. "The kid hasn't budged. Kinda makes you wonder if he went brain-dead after going through the Robotosizer."

Khrista stiffened. "He _what?!"_ She dashed over to the blue-and-green armor and quickly looked the figure over from the feet up: cobalt boots, gray underarmor, cobalt armor protecting his abdomen, gray armor on his stomach, white gloves, cobalt forearms, a dusty blue-and-lime green chest plate, and cobalt shoulder guards.

Khrista looked over her cousin in alarm before looking back at the Reploid. "Did you run into him or something?"

Maria shook her head. "I broke into some lab and destroyed the Robotosizer. I just hope that I wasn't too late." She glanced down at Cyrus for a moment, frowning, when her expression brightened a moment later. "Maybe I could take him to a couple friends of mine and have them look Joshua over. If anyone would be able to figure anything out, it would be Dr. Light and Kintobor."

"Kintobar?" Quill repeated, stiffening.

"No. Kinto _bor_. This Eggman's a good guy." Maria looked between the three unconscious figures. "Now to get those two back to the Smash Worlds Tournament so that they can be taken to the No Zone, then figure out where to go with Joshua...." She glanced over at Khrista, a curious frown coming over her face. "How did you two get here in the first place, anyway?"

"Uh...." It took Khrista a moment to answer, considering that Maria's mutterings were completely unexpected. "...Teleport while holding onto a plain old ring from a robotic Flicky?"

Maria blinked in confusion, then frowned. "Well, in that case...do you think you can Teleport yourself home? Or do I have to take you with me on a roundabout trip? Because I could work with either."

Khrista blinked upon hearing Maria's proposal. She might have been able to, and yet.... "I don't think that me using Teleport is quite safe yet. I mean, the only reason I got here was because I used the extra energy that was left in the ring we found. Who knows what would happen if I used Teleport now? I could end up in, I don't know...an alternate universe or something."

Maria paused, considering the other teen's statement. Then she gave a nod. "All right. I'll drop you off at home, but we need to take care of Cyrus and Finitivus first. Do you mind giving me a hand with that?"

"Sure." Khrista walked over and grabbed Cyrus' feet again. "Whenever you're ready."

Maria blinked. "You want to leave _now_?"

"You may as well," Quill spoke up suddenly. "You have the two that you were looking for. We don't need you in order to take on Kintobar directly."

Khrista looked over at the blue-gray hedgehog, taking note of the serious expression in his eyes. "You're sure?"

"Yes."

"The only problems I saw were with things that came from other worlds," Maria spoke up suddenly. "You can stay if you want, Khrista, but we really should leave them be, I think." The Reploid picked up Joshua and put him over one shoulder; then she grabbed Finitivus' hands and held onto both their wrists.

Khrista looked back and forth between Quill and Maria, considering what exactly she could do at this point in time. She wanted to try and stay and help, but if they really didn't need her--

 _*Think about your cousin, Khrista*_ Arsenal spoke up suddenly. _*He might just agree with Maria and Quill. Sonic and the Freedom Fighters handled themselves well before -- you don't need to worry about staying behind to help*_

Khrista frowned. "Are you sure?"

_*Certain. Go with your friend*_

Khrista let out a sigh! then turned to look at Maria and gave a nod. The Reploid, who had been watching with an unreadable expression, gave a nod in return.

"One roundabout trip home, coming up," Maria stated. She held up her free hand, and blue light exploded out in front of them, forming a swirling whirlpool of blue energy.

Quill's eyes widened. "How --"

"I'm a World Jumper," Maria replied lightly. She shrugged. "Kinda comes with the territory." The girl's blue eyes moved to lock with Khrista's identical orbs. "Come on; let's go."

Khrista gave a nod, then followed the Reploid through the portal...

...and out into what appeared to be some sort of hall from a restored castle. The entire place was empty...except for two figures standing a few feet away from them.

"Hi, Chaos!" Maria greeted cheerily as the portal closed behind the two girls. "We've got them!"

The giant, purple-cat-like creature gave a nod of approval. _"Good. I didn't think it would take you all that long in order to find them."_

"I didn't even get to spend the night." Maria shrugged.

"I spent three days there, though," Khrista spoke up.

The Mewtwo in front of the two girls turned his head to look over at Khrista, and he inclined his head. _"So you did."_ He looked over at the figure next to him -- a Mobian wearing some sort of sci-fi outfit that was a mixture of colors -- green being among them. Khrista thought that she could see some blue quills sticking out the back of his head. _"Are you willing to take Cyrus and Finitivus to the No Zone, as I requested?"_

The figure in the outfit gave a nod. "Those two have caused more than enough trouble for their home world; to escape to another one put us on the alert almost instantly." He pulled a pair of what looked like handcuffs out of nowhere and walked over to the two knocked out figures that Maria and Khrista had dragged after them. There were two resounding _clicks_ as the handcuffs clicked around Cyrus' and Finitivus' wrists.

"You might want to be careful with Cyrus," Khrista warned. "He let himself get Robotosized and claimed he was 'perfect' when I ran into him."

Maria let out a sigh of annoyance and shook her head. "That moron."

The Mobian in the sci-fi outfit also let out a sigh. "That seems to be common with his alternate selves. Always looking for perfection...." He looked over at the two girls and gave a nod. "Thank you for catching these two criminals." A second later, he vanished with the two criminals in a flash of light.

"Now that that's settled...." Maria turned and looked at Khrista. "I could go ahead and send you home."

"Now?" Khrista gave the Reploid a look of surprise. "What about Joshua?" she motioned to the limp form of her cousin, who was still on Maria's shoulder.

"Like I said before, I'm going to take him to either Dr. Light or Kintobor," Maria replied coolly. Moments later, a sheepish look crossed her face. "I honestly didn't think that you'd want to come along."

 _"Perhaps you should have asked, Maria,"_ Chaos stated pointedly. A frown came over his face. _"Why would you have to take Joshua to one of those two men, however?"_

"He was Robotosized when neither one of us was looking," Maria answered grimly. "I came in near the end of the transformation and stopped it, but Joshua hasn't woken up yet."

There came a soft gasp from above their heads, causing Khrista to look up. A frown came over her face when she saw a girl sitting cross-legged _in mid-air_ scribbling furiously in a notebook.

"You!"

Khrista looked over at Maria, and was surprised to see recognition appear in the Reploid's blue eyes.

The black hair of the floating girl shifted as she looked up, and green eyes widened when she saw the two girls staring at her.

"Not again," the girl whimpered.

"Again?" Khrista frowned, then looked over at Maria for an explanation.

"She was sitting on my bed when I came home one day," Maria replied, not taking her eyes off the girl. "I don't know who she is, but I don't like the look of that notebook of hers."

_"What is your name, child?"_

Khrista and Maria looked over at Chaos, whose eyes were trained on the nervous girl.

 _"You need not be afraid,"_ the Mewtwo continued. _"You are among friends."_

The girl looked nervous all the same, and she ducked her head. "I'm called Scribe," she murmured quietly.

 _"What are you doing here, Scribe?"_ Chaos asked.

"I'm trying to record what's going on in other worlds, that's all." Scribe still looked strangely nervous at talking to Chaos. "I-I don't mean any harm or anything...."

"Hey, it's OK," Khrista spoke up. "It's just that popping up all over the place is kind of..." Khrista paused as she mentally searched for a good word. "...weird."

"I would have said 'stalker-like'," Maria muttered. Khrista gave her a glare, but she ignored it.

Scribe gave a slight smile. "Sorry if I seem to be like that. I just...don't like to be seen, that's all."

"Hey -- it's okay," Khrista responded. "Like Chaos said -- you're among friends."

Scribe's green eyes blinked in confusion for a moment. Then she shook her head. "I've gotta go. My friend's probably worried about where I am."

Before Khrista, Maria, or Chaos could respond to this, Scribe disappeared in a quick flash of light.

"Well, that was abrupt," Knrista remarked. "I wonder who her friend is...."

At the back of her mind, another thought filtered into focus: her parents with worried expressions.

"Oh, shoot! I forgot about my parents!" Khrista yelped. "They're probably panicking right now because I disappeared again."

"Aren't you guys on uneasy terms as it is?" Maria asked, raising an eyebrow. "I mean, after everything that happened on Neo-Mobius."

"Still, I shouldn't make them worry to death by disappearing from my room." Khrista gave Maria a pleading look. "Could you send me back home?"

The Reploid gave the blue-eyed teen a smile. "Sure, no problem. I'll drop you off in my backyard, okay? You don't have to face off against them right away."

"Thanks, Maria. I owe you one."

"No, you don't." Maria waved a hand, and a blue whirlpool appeared next to her. "One ticket home. Go on ahead -- I'll meet up with you later."

Khrista gave Maria a nod. "Don't do anything stupid to Joshua, all right?"

"What do you take me for?" Maria grinned. "Your cousin's going to be fine -- now get going! That portal isn't going to stay open forever."

Khrista smirked, then gave her friend a short wave before turning and walking into the portal. Seconds later, she stepped out on the other side behind Maria's two-story, tan house.

The back door slammed open the same time the portal closed behind Khrista, and a young man with brown hair, blue eyes, and a dark blue shirt and jeans came running out of the house.

"Khrista, where's Maria?" the young man demanded.

"She's going to take care of something, Matt," Khrista replied. She bit her lower lip. "Joshua got Robotosized, so she's going to figure out if he's all right." Her eyebrows knit together as the thought hit her fully in the face: her cousin was a _robot._

Matt's blue eyes widened. "Robotosized...?" A frown came over his face. "What happened?"

"Well, Joshua and I kind of went after Cyrus and Charon -- I-I mean, Finitivus. We raided a base, and...Joshua got caught."

"Finitivus?" Maria's older brother became confused. "Since when did the old man turn back?"

"Since we ended up on an alternate version of Mobius!" Khrista's concerned look faded, and she gave a frown. "Do you know something about what was going on with him, then?"

Matthew nodded. "It has a lot to do with antics from Dialga and Palkia." The older boy motioned for Khrista to follow him inside. "Come on -- it's kind of a long story, considering what Maria went through."

"Then I'd better let my parents know that I'm back." Khrista started to walk around the house, but then Matthew stopped her by grabbing her shoulder.

"They're not there," Matthew stated from behind Khrista.

Khrista froze, then turned and looked back at her neighbor. "What?"

"They kinda took off for a vacation trip a few days ago -- that cruise Joshua's family didn't want to go on. They'll be back next week."

"Why?" Khrista's voice was soft.

"They panicked after you and your cousin disappeared again, so Mom went over and had a talk with them. It seemed to do _something_ , but none of us know what."

Khrista let out a sigh and ran a hand through her hair. "Then I might as well have stayed with Maria. She still has Joshua with her, too."

As Khrista was speaking, a blue flash suddenly appeared in the corner of her eye. The teen turned her head, causing Matthew to look in that direction, as well.

Another blue portal had appeared where Khrista's had been a moment ago. Two figures appeared in the blue swirl, and they stepped out of the portal and onto the grass at once.

Khrista's eyes widened when she caught sight of the figures stepping out. "Joshua! Maria!" She ran forward and rammed into the cobalt and lime green-armored teenager.

"Khrista?" Joshua asked, surprised. "What are you doing here?"

"Her parents disappeared for a vacation trip," Matthew spoke up. "We can let her stay over at our house until they get back."

Maria blinked in surprise. "Really? I didn't think they had that sort of thing in them."

"Nor I," Joshua agreed. His indigo eyes locked with Khrista's blue ones in an unidentifiable expression.

**Khrista's POV**

Wait...Indigo?!

"Joshua, what happened to your eyes?" I squeaked in surprise. "They're indigo!"

Joshua blinked at my yelp, then he gave a slight smile. "Part of my transformation into a Reploid, I suppose."

"Reploid...?" I looked between my cousin and my neighbor. "You didn't take him to Dr. Light and leave him there didn't you?"

"I didn't _leave_ him," Maria replied patiently. "I needed to check in on few things while I was there."

There was a pause for a moment.

"So, what now?" I asked. "Mom and Dad left me alone, so...."

Maria gave a smirk. "Come on inside. We'll let my mom know we're back and what it is that we've been doing." She started towards the back door.

Since I didn't really have much else to do at this point, I followed after her.

**3rd POV -- Several Days Later....**

Khrista woke up with a tingling sensation all over her skin. It was as though something was _begging_ her to use Teleport and go somewhere.

She didn't like the feeling, and she tried to fight it. Gritting her teeth, she attempted to go back to sleep, but it wasn't much use -- already, her shirt was shifting from dull red to bright gold. Someone -- or some _thing_ \-- was forcing her to do what she didn't want to do.

And Khrista was losing. Badly.

The teen held onto one wisp of dull red for as long as she could, fighting the tingling sensation that was forcing her to go complete Psychic-Type. Unfortunately, the sensation overwhelmed her and forced her to disappear with a broken yell that woke up the two adults in the house.

Unfortunately, they were too late to come to their daughter's aid....

**End**

 

**Rings: cobalt, red, yellow, purple, orange, green, and gold (Master: Black (Dark) and White (Light); become one (gray))**

**Second Mobius Inhabitants--Prime Zone Counterparts (Who's Who Credits)**

**Sarah Tripletail (white fox w/blue eyes) -- Sally Acorn**

**Verdun (green echidna w/gold eyes; black gloves and boots that come up to the knees** **) -- Knuckles**

**Quill (dark blue-gray hedgehog w/dark green eyes; purple shoes with a single white stripe and black buckle) -- Sonic (CAN TRANSFORM INTO A WEREHOG!)**

**Hannibal (orange cat w/green eyes in Robin Hood-like outfit) -- Antoine**

**Espio -- Espio**

**Vector -- Vector**

**Charmy -- Charmy**

**Ceryl (blue armadillo) -- Mighty**

**Sabre (dark** **green echidna w/purple eyes, white gloves, black shoes that look like Knux's) -- Locke**

**Naomi (rabbit w/honey eyes) -- Cream**

**White Fang (bat) -- Rouge?**

**Hambei (yellow hedgehog) --**

**Kambei (black hedgehog) -- Shadow (WEREHOG!)**

**Venice Doubletail (white two-tailed female fox w/golden eyes) -- Tails?**

**Manic (large, red Werehog) --**

**Selena (large, pink Werecat) --**

**Ivan Kintobar -- Eggman**

**Author's Note:**

> Warned you it was gonna be awkward.


End file.
